


Loco Parentis

by writterings



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: David Adopts Max AU, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jared Klienman - Freeform, Max has ADHD, aka the au everyone wants but i havent seen a fic for yet??, also a lot of cursing. so much cursing., dadvid, he's just there don't question it, its all platonic/family stuff so nasties stay away, slight Dear Evan Hansen crossover, tags will be updated as fic progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2018-12-05 19:49:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11584995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writterings/pseuds/writterings
Summary: Max's parents don't pick him up from camp at the end of the summer.That leads to some problems.As in, "David suddenly becomes a father of a jaded ten year old at the age of twenty-four and Max has some real deep issues most kids don't have to deal with" type of problems.(AKA a David adopts Max AU)





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cliche title is cliche, cliche-ish plot idea is cliche-ish.

The last day of camp was always a tearful event. 

Or, at least it was on David’s behalf. The guy just couldn’t help but let loose the waterworks whenever a camper’s parents came to pick them up. Most kids didn’t return to Camp Campbell after their first hellish year spent there, and he just couldn’t help but get emotional over that fact.

Well,  _ most  _ being the keyword there. Max was the only exception to that rule, seeing as this was his third summer spent at Camp Campbell. Though it looked as though he had forced Nikki and Neil into a form of a bribery/suicide-pact/pinkie promise that they would return with him the next year as well (if David had interpreted correctly the little meeting he had walked in on them having one night about a week ago). 

So, make that not one, not three, but two exceptions to that as well.

But still, they were leaving now and David cried dramatically as they waved goodbye at him from their cars. Nikki had let David hug her with a fond, but somewhat exasperated sigh. She also bit his hand again, but not as hard as she first did when they first met. Neil had shaken his hand, and didn’t say anything when David went down on one knee, put his other hand on his shoulder, and told him to be a good kid. He had just frowned and said “You know, you’re not terrible” and walked over to his mom’s honking minivan. 

All the kids more or less let David hug them or give them a buzzword-speech about why they mattered or how they were so special. Even Erid and Nurf, surprisingly, two of the oldest campers put up with his tears without too much of a huff. The younger ones, like Dolph, actually started crying. 

It was about six o’clock in the evening when there was only one camper left. Like there usually was, every year for the past three years.

Max.

“Hey, there, turn that frown upside down!” David said as he came out onto the front steps of the mess hall, where Max had been waiting. He held up a cellophane-wrapped item. “I brought ice cream!”

Max didn’t turn, but rather seemed to slump further into himself. He had his hood of his hoodie up. 

David sat down next to him, and placed the unwrapped fudge pop next Max. “C’mon, it’s only been three hours! I’m sure they’re just stuck in traffic.”

“Yeah,” Max said, blindly reaching down to grab his fudge pop. He got it after a few minutes of fumbling, then pushed it up through the wrapper. He didn’t eat it. “Yeah, you’re right.”

David frowned and tentatively reached a hand over to place on Max’s back. When he didn’t get yelled at, he patted him lightly and then removed his hand before Max decided he didn’t want to be touched anymore. “Are you feeling okay, Max?”

“I’m fine, David.” Max sighed and leaned his head against the wooden stair railing on his left. “I’m fucking fantastic.”

David attempted another awkward back-pat, then scooted towards him a bit more. He popped his own fudge pop out of its wrapper and took a bite. “Do you want to do something in the meantime while we wait for them?”

“No.” Max’s ice cream began to melt in his hands. He paused then sighed again. “David, don’t you have to go pack up or something? I doubt even you stay here all year round.”

David smiled. “I’m all packed up and ready to go whenever. A Camp Campbell counselor is always two steps ahead of schedule! I think Gwen is so far ahead, she even left already. Ha!”

“You’re an idiot.” Max sighed. “Why don’t you just leave then? I’m pretty sure you’re not contractually required to hang around after the camp program is technically over.”

“Actually, I  _ am _ ,” David said, scooting a bit more towards Max. He gave him another awkward pat and then, thinking better of it, left his hand resting lightly on Max’s back. He then tried to contain the shock when it wasn’t thrown off. “As longer as there’s a camper on the property, I have them in  _ loco parentis  _ as the Romans would say. I can’t just leave you here.”

“Why not?” The ice cream was running between Max’s fingers now, dripping slowly onto his shorts. His voice took on a rather bitter, but also resigned tone. “ _ They _ did.”

“Who?” David asked, even though he knew who. He had pushed his ice cream back into its wrapper. “You can’t mean your parents!”

“Of course I mean my fucking parents, David,” Max huffed. He finally looked down at the ice cream melting in his hand, and then immediately chucked it out at the dirty road in front of them. He made his sticky hand into a fist. “They do this. Every. Fucking. Year.”

David didn’t berate him for cursing or littering. He just sighed. “I know.”

Max lifted his head up and stared out at the road in front of them. Then, as if hesitating himself, he slowly leaned over into David’s side, allowing himself to be comforted (or, more like, demanding David provide him with comfort).

“Tell anyone about this, and you’re dead,” Max mumbled. “I still fucking hate you, you know.”

David looked down at Max with sad eyes. “I know.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes. David held up his hand holding his ice cream, then threw it over to where Max had thrown his. It flew a bit farther, and ended up on the edge of the woods. 

He would pick both of them up later.

“They’re coming,” he promised Max. 

“Sure.”

“They are.”

But they never did.

* * *

 

 

Phone calls were made, some police showed up, some police went home, and eventually, at 9:37 AM, a woman in a sleek black car pulled up in the Camp Campbell parking lot and banged on David’s cabin’s door for fifteen minutes until the man himself came walking over to her from the lake. 

“There’s no running water in the cabin,” he explained, hair dripping wet. 

The woman introduced herself briefly, but David already knew who she was. To be honest, he was somewhat surprised he hadn’t met her earlier -- or, at least, someone with her job. She asked to be shown where Max was. David led her into the cabin. 

Max was curled up on an armchair, fast asleep. His hoodie was still on over his pajamas, hood still up, and he had a giant comforter placed over top of him. David walked over to him with some caution, then shook his slightly on the shoulder. Max jolted awake, looked around in panic, then glared up at him. 

“What the actual  _ fuck _ , David?”

David opened his mouth to respond, but shut it when he saw the woman shaking her head. He turned to her. 

Max followed his line of vision, then almost visibly recoiled. “Who the fuck is this?”

“Language,” David said softly. “And -- uh. You’ll be going with her.”

“What, did my parents hire her to bring me home?” He stared up at David, looking disgusted. “They’re just too lazy this year to get me themselves?”

The woman walked over to Max and got on eye-level with him. She took of her sunglasses, which she had still been wearing inside, and revealed a set of piercing blue eyes. “Hello, Max,” she said in what she obviously thought to be a soothing voice. “My name is Miss Shannon. I’m here to take you to a nice family with a nice house and-”

“Oh my god,” Max breathed out. He looked up at David. “You called fucking child protective services on me?!”

Shannon huffed at being interrupted, but David ignored her. “I didn’t,” he said. “Your grandmother...did.”

Confusion replaced the betrayal in Max’s eyes. “ _ What _ ?”

“She was your emergency contact if we couldn’t reach your parents and-”

“That’s enough!” Shannon snapped. She reached out and gingerly took Max’s hand. “The poor boy is too young to understand all that, plus it’ll just upset him.”

“I understand perfectly!” Max ripped his hand out of her grip and jumped to his feet. “I’m not going into the fucking system because  _ Dadi _ finally decided to let slip that my dad is a meth addict!”

“Max-” David started.

Max whirled around. “ _ You _ . You did this.”

He started storming forward, ready to do as much damage as a ten year old could to a fully grown man, but was stopped when a firm hand clamped down on his shoulder.

“Mr. David knew nothing of your home life, or your situation,” Shannon said, sounding vaguely pissed off. “He simply called your emergency contact when your parents failed to pick you up, and your grandmother -- you called her  _ Dadi _ ? -- and your  _ Dadi  _ then called our state agency to inform us of the situation and we deemed it unsafe for you to go home.” She glared down at his shocked face. “You said you could understand the truth, but can you handle it?”

Max swallowed heavily. “So I’m not going home?”

“No,” Shannon breathed in, and then pulled out her sunglasses again. She put them on, even though they were inside. “A small amount of your belongings have been gathered for you, but if you need anything else your foster parents can either buy it for you or we can send an intern on a run for it.” She frowned. “Though, there wasn’t much to pick up in the first place. The agent we sent had a hard time finding even basic clothing that belonged to you.”

Max looked down, glaring. “Yeah.”

The lines on Shannon’s face smoothed out and her face seemed to soften a bit. “You’re going to a good home, Max. The people there are very kind and they already have a foster daughter there who has reported nothing but positive things about them.”

Max looked up at her, looking vulnerable for a moment, and then his face twisted back into his usual scowl. “Cool.”

“So, are you ready to leave? Where are your things?”

Max spent the next fifteen minutes going to the bathroom to change out of his pajamas and gathering together his duffle bag. He then demanded that David make him coffee for the road. Shannon looked horrified at his behavior, especially his over-use of the word “fuck”, but didn’t say anything. David just smiled at him and ruffled his hair, which earned him a swat on the arm and a few nasty comments as he made his way to the kitchen. 

As he started up the Keurig, the door to the room swung open and Max walked in. He shut the door behind him and then defiantly sat on the table, arms crossed. “I’m just here to make sure you don’t fuck up my coffee,” he said, glaring at the floor. “You don’t know how I like it.”

“You like it black, Max,” David said, shaking his head and smiling as he went to the cabinet to get a travel mug. “You told me so every morning for the past three years when you would break into my cabin every morning and demand coffee because the mess hall didn’t serve it yet and-”

“Oh god,” Max groaned. “Don’t go all sentimental on me. It’s not like I’ll never see you again. Unfortunately.”

David paused, and then continued his search. “Uh, actually,” he said, “this may very well be your last time at Camp Campbell, Max.”

The room was silent. 

“What?” Max said after a moment. 

“Well your parents aren’t exactly going to be there to force you to come anymore, right?” David struggled to find the words. “Because, uh-”

“Shut up,” Max snapped. “We don’t know for sure that I’m never coming back.”

“That’s true,” David said. He finally found the mug, and then went to the sink to rinse it out. The Keurig had finished brewing and was pouring coffee into a regular mug as they spoke. “You could very well end up here next year! Wouldn’t that be fun? And maybe you’ll end up the year after that and the year after that and the year after that! And you’ll have so much fun you’ll end up volunteering as a C.I.T. and-”

“Ugh, barf.” David turned just in time to see Max flop back on the table, being short enough to do so without his head banging against the wall it was pushed against. “That sounds fucking terrible.”

“It’s what I did!” David exclaimed. 

“Of course it is.” Max sat back up, and then hopped to his feet off the table. He walked over to David and stared up at him for a moment. “So, this really is the last time I might see your annoyingly cheerful face?”

“You bet.” David smiled down at him, and then turned again to pour his coffee in the travel mug. “But that’s okay! If you ever miss me, I’m pretty sure my number is up on the Camp Campbell website.”

He was half-joking, of course, but when he turned back around with a travel mug full of coffee he was surprised to see Max wasn’t scowling up at him. 

“So...that’s it? That’s fucking it? I was always so sure the last time I saw you I would punch you in the face but….” he trailed off, and looked up at David. “What the fuck?”

“Yeah.” David held the coffee out to him and quirked his smile. “And I always thought that the last time I would see you, that you would have realized how much you actually enjoyed camp and that you’ll really miss it! Well, no I didn’t think that. But I hoped it. So,  _ what the fuck  _ indeed!”

“You…” Max blinked. “....cursed.”

He took the coffee, putting it up to his lips for a moment but then decided it was too hot. He held it down, out of this face. 

“Fucking hell,” he muttered. “Now  _ I’m _ feeling sentimental….”

David smiled. Under normal circumstances, he would have cheerfully asked if Max was then interested in a warm and friendly hug. In fact, he almost offered it. But he didn’t. Now wasn’t the time, even though it was now or never. 

He had never been able to get Max to hug him at the end of summer the other years, either.

“C’mon,” David said. “Let’s not keep Shannon waiting.”

He led Max back into the living room/entryway to the cabin. Shannon was there, but Max’s bag was not.

“I took it out to the car while I was waiting,” she explained. 

David walked Max and Shannon to their car, hovering just behind Max the whole time. He looked out at the lake, at the forest, at the places the camper’s tents used to be and felt and pangs of nostalgia, sentimentality, and even regret all at once. He looked back down at Max and felt those feelings increase doubly. 

Shannon opened the driver’s door to her car. “I’ll let you two say your goodbyes. It looks as though you two are close.” 

She got in the car and turned her head the other before either of them could say anything. 

David took a deep breath. “Max-”

He was cut off before he could even begin by a small pair of arms suddenly flinging themselves around his waist, head going face first into his stomach. “Shut up.”

_ Oh _ , David thought. He reached down and let his arms go on Max’s shoulders. Children had hugged him like this before, usually the younger campers that took a shining to him and felt shy about asking him for a hug at the end of the summer even though they knew he wouldn’t ever deny them one. It was that awkward type of hug, when the kid was too short to actually hug him properly and he couldn’t exactly hug them back. 

It wasn’t a "friendly warm" hug, but it was nice.

And it also lasted maybe thirty seconds, before Max roughly pushed David away and took a stumbling few steps backwards. David didn’t say anything, he didn’t even smile. He stared down at Max’s angry face and watched him spill his coffee on the ground as he held his travel mug at an improper angle.

“ _ Fuck you _ ,” Max said. 

He hesitated only a second longer, then turned and got in the car. David took a few steps back as Shannon started it, and then went up on the mess hall steps as she put it into drive as to avoid being hit with all the dust her car was about to kick up. 

An empty feeling in David’s gut arose as he watched the shiny black car go under the rotting and faded Camp Campbell sign. He had been hoping Max would look back at least once at him or the camp as the car pulled away so he could wave one final goodbye, but knew it was in vain. He watched the car go, at the the camp-required speed limit of 5 MPH, for a bit longer and then turned away so he could go grab his stuff and leave the camp himself. 

As he was heading back to the cabin, though, he missed it as Max knelt on his seat in the back of Shannon’s car and peered out the back window, looking back with surprised and somewhat, uncharacteristically hurt eyes at an empty Camp Campbell.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i impulsively wrote this at like 3 am the other night and now its 3 am again and im posting it. GOD IM TIRED. 
> 
> anyways, im hoping this helps me break out of some writer's block i've been having lately and im also hoping it turns out the way i hope it will because DAMN do i got some ideas for this fic that i'm excited for. 
> 
> anyways, leave a comment if you want. i know not toooooo much happened in this chapter but it's always nice to know the stuff i do is appreciated even if it's only the beginning. i'll try to update soon!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> completely unbeta'd so sorry for any typos or grammar mistakes lol

David expected it to be over then. He returned home to his tiny apartment in the city, he prepared to return to his usual job, and he mentally tried to let go of Max. 

Of course, there wasn’t much to let go of. The parental-type affection he had grown for the kid was completely one-sided -- he knew Max wasn’t his biggest fan. But still, he got a painful pang in his gut every time he thought about how he would quite literally never see him again. 

That was the problem with David -- he always grew too attached to people too quick. Even if he had known Max for three years, he felt as though that was no excuse to mourn over whatever  _ it _ was the two of them had.

But he did mourn. He cried on the whole car ride home from Camp Campbell. He was David -- it was just what he did. And as much as he knew Max would gag at the thought, he missed him already. 

And it took him a while, but he finally did let go of Max. He had just about come to terms with it -- this _it_ meaning “never seeing Max again” -- a few days after he got to his more permanent residence. He was a grown ass man who would not let his feelings dictate his life. 

Besides, Max probably forgot about him already. No use in sulking over a failed friendship when the other person didn’t care. 

Or, at least, that’s what he thought until he received a phone call and three simple words brought all his assumptions and preconceived notions about the kid crashing down. 

“ _ What’s up, Dipshit? _ ” Max’s voice said when he answered the phone late one night. 

David been sleeping and had groggily answered the phone, but at the sound of Max’s voice he sat bolt right in his bed and started looking around in his dark room as if the kid had suddenly fabricated there instead of called him. “Max?!”

“ _ Who else, idiot? I really doubt you have any friends _ .” He heard Max snort on the other line. “ _ Well, besides Gwen and some squirrels, I guess. But even then I don’t think Gwen likes you that much. _ ”

David ignored the insults. “Why are you calling me at -” he checked the time on his digital alarm clock “-3 AM, Max?”

There was silence on the other end for a moment. “ _ Uh… _ ” Max started. “ _ It’s actually only 12 over here. I got sent to another state _ .”

“Why are you up at 12 AM, then?”

“ _ I just am, David. Jesus, let me live. _ ”

“Alright.” A wave of tiredness suddenly hit David and he blinked a few times to try to wake up. “So, uh, why are you calling?”

“ _ You said your number was up on the Camp Campbell website. I wanted to see if that was true. _ ” Max paused for a moment. “ _ So it’s true. I guess I can hang up now. _ ”

“Uh-” David started. 

There was some fumbling on the other end of the line while David waited for it to go dead. Instead, he heard some muffled yelling from what sounded to be an older man’s voice.  Max yelled back, voice almost as muffled, but David could still make out some of his words if he strained his ears. Max had definitely said the words “You can’t control me, you incomplete Baby Boomer!” in there. 

There was a huff, and Max was back. “ _ Change of plans. The Man is trying to keep me down and I have to rebel. We’re continuing this phone conversation. Don’t look too deeply into this, I’m just doing it to spite someone _ .”

David’s tired mind hardly comprehended what Max said. “Okay.”

“ _ Great. Anyways _ ,” Max said. “ _ I was gonna save this question for some other time or just google it, but where the fuck do you live? _ ” 

“Where -- where do I live?” David repeated. 

“ _ You heard me. Where the fuck do you live? It’s not a hard question, David. _ ”

David told Max where he lived, and then gave him a few more details as Max requested them. He was too tired to argue or question why Max wanted to know all this information, and with his added open and trusting disposition he typically wasn’t the type of person to  _ not  _ give out personal information freely if it was asked for. 

“So...uh….?” David finally started, stifling a yawn. It was only polite to ask about the other person in a conversation after they asked you a bunch of personal, invasive questions. “How’s the new home, Max?”

“ _ Uh...shitty, to be honest. I almost hate my new foster parents as much as you. _ ” Max gave a bitter laugh. “ _ At least there’s an actual shower here, instead of that leaky faucet we had to use at camp. _ ”

David wasn’t sure why, but hearing Max talk about Camp Campbell made him smile -- even if it was negative. “Don’t tell me you miss camp.”

“ _ Weren’t you listening to me? Fuck no. _ ” Max paused. “ _ Though I do miss the coffee. The foster ‘rents won’t let me drink it here. Something about it clashing bad with my ADHD. _ ”

“But doesn’t coffee actually  _ help  _ you with it?”

Max sighed, almost resigned. “ _ Tried telling ‘em that. Idiots just won’t believe me _ .”

David stifled another yawn. “What about decaf?”

“ _ They’re fucking nuts, David. All about health and shit. They were probably hippies in the 80s or whenever hippies were a thing. _ ” Max laughed. “ _ Get this -- the mom’s name is Rainbow Moon. Literally, that’s her legal name _ .” He then snorted. “ _ She’s honestly not too bad...but fucking Rainbow Moon. That’s hilarious. _ ”

“It’s not nice to make fun of people’s names, Max,” David chided. He blinked a few times to wake himself up a bit more. “And I know I’m not your camp counselor anymore but-”

“ _ Yeah, yeah. Shut up, David _ ,” Max huffed at him, though it didn’t sound as annoyed as it usually would have. “ _ I think I have a right to make fun of this old lady’s name. It sounds like a fucking  _ My Little Pony  _ character _ .”

Even David had to give a snort at that. “Fair enough.”

“ _ God, even you would hate it here _ ,” Max said. “ _ You won’t even believe what the foster daughter is like…. _ ”

“I’m sure she is a lovely and wonderful individual, and could even be your friend if you gave her a chance!” David interjected as Max trailed off. “Honestly, Max! People can be great if you just give them a chance.”

“ _ Save the inspirational speech for the end of your feel-good Hallmark movie that you seem to be living _ .” Max huffed. “ _ She’s terrible though. I didn’t know girls could be so….icky _ .  _ And that’s not a word I generally throw around _ .”

David laughed. “Well, you seemed to have no problem sharing a tent with Nikki this summer.”

“ _ Nikki wasn’t icky. And don’t laugh because that rhymed. _ ”

David tried not to by changing the subject. “Speaking of which, have you talked to Nikki or Neil? I know you three were as close as three peas in a pod!”

Max huffed in disgust. “ _ Please, never say ‘three peas in a pod again’. Only white suburban moms and old people say shit like that. _ ” He then paused. “ _ And, uh, no. I haven’t talked to them. We were all too stupid to exchange phone numbers at the end of camp. _ ”

“Oh,” David said. “I’m sorry to hear that, Max.”

“ _ It doesn’t matter. I’m sure Neil is too busy having fun playing Bill Nye and Nikki is...doing whatever it is Nikki does besides pee on things in the woods _ .” Max sighed. “ _ To be honest, I miss th- _ ”

He cut himself off before he could finish. 

“ _ Uh, so _ ,” Max then said, clearing his throat. He sounded embarrassed at the almost-display of emotion. “ _ Anyways _ .”

David realized Max was waiting for him to change topics again. “Uh, so…” He thought for a moment. “Are you back in school yet?”

“ _ Unfortunately, yeah. They start earlier in this state, sometime in August. I’m actually behind all my classmates, _ ” Max grumbled. He sounded bitter over that fact.  _ “They’re all idiots though, even if their grades are better than mine. And I’m not afraid to tell them that _ .”

He gave a small laugh then, that sounded vaguely like “heh”.

“What do you mean, Max?” David raised an eyebrow, even though Max wouldn’t be able to see it. “You’re not telling people you think they’re stupid, right? That’s mean, Max!”

“ _ Shut up. I don’t care. They’re all idiots. It doesn’t help that none of them know how to gracefully take a punch _ .”

“ _ Max _ .” David stressed his name. “You’re not starting fights, are you?”

“ _ Who cares _ ?” Max gave another one of those ‘heh’ laughs. “ _ I don’t get caught. Well usually. One time this lil bitch named Joey-” _

Max then launched into a tangent about how he most certainly didn’t deserve detention for calling a kid an ass-o-holic bastard fuckwad (“He called me a buttwipe, David! I’m not going to stand for that.”). He lost David midway through on account of how he was not the most articulate of story-tellers, but David still tried to be an active listener. That was, until he glanced over at his clock that now read 4:03 AM in glaring electronic green letters. David had to be up in two hours. 

“Hey, Max?” he interjected at what he hoped was a good time. “I have to wake up for work soon, and while talking to you has been a splendid experience, I have to ask-”

“ _ You have a real job _ ?” Max interrupted. He sounded surprised. “ _ I thought you fucking lived at camp, like Campbell does when he’s hiding from the government _ .”

“I just told you I lived in the city not too long ago,” David said, voice still chipper and friendly but somewhat confused. “Though I wish I did live at Camp Campbell. That would be a dream come true!”

“ _ I always figured you just hid out there during the school year and lived off, like, the power of trees and dirt _ .  _ And bugs _ .” Max then yawned, though it sounded fake. “ _ Anyways, yeah, let’s hang up soon. I’m fucking tired. Jesus, David, you’re keeping a ten year old up ‘til 1 AM _ .  _ What the hell, man? _ ”

“You’re the one who called me, Max.”

“ _ Shut up. No I didn’t _ .” Max faked another yawn. “ _ Would you look at that. I am so fucking tired. I’m about to fall asleep where I’m standing, David. Fuck you. _ ”

“Fu-” David cut himself short. He had almost said “fuck you too” as a reflex response, similarly how everyone felt compelled to say “love you too” anytime they heard someone say “love you”. 

Max hadn’t hung up yet. “ _ What was that _ ?”

“Nothing! Nothing..” David felt himself go red. “I definitely didn’t almost curse!”

“ _ Oooookay, then. Weirdo. _ ” Max paused again. “ _ Can I call you again tomorrow _ ?"

“Sure,” David said without thinking. He then backtracked. “But, uh, at an earlier time please. Remember time zones!”

Max huffed. “ _ Yeah, okay. Whatever _ .” He paused one final time. “ _ Goodnight _ .”

The line went dead before David could respond.

He stared at his phone for a moment before flopping back on his bed and looking up vacantly at his ceiling. David suddenly didn't feel very tired anymore, despite how he was quite literally getting a headache from fatigue at the moment. His mind was buzzing from his conversation with Max, wondering about everything and nothing simultaneously. 

Eventually though, his eyes did slip shut and he was out within minutes. He had a dream  about a beach, a laughing child, and the vague sense of sand between his teeth but woke up half an hour later remembering none of it. Just as he slowly tried to get back to sleep  _ again _ , it struck him how earlier had been the first semi-normal conversation he had ever had with Max, and that time he ended up dreaming about Camp Campbell. 

He guessed the kid didn’t completely hate him after all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is literally JUST under 2000 words and im pissed because the last chapter was nearly 3000 words....i promise the next chapter will be longer.....
> 
> also i love the hc that max has ADHD! im autistic myself and ADHD and autism have been called "brain cousins" because they're so similar so whenever i see an austistic/ADHD hc im like...hell yeah.....
> 
> now the next update will hopefully be this saturday but i honestly don't know because my computer is dying on me, i just started a new job, and i'm on the local rescue squad which eats up a lot of my time. (i'm also playing dream daddy and voltron season three comes out in a week. so. you know. gotta have time for that.) but yeah. saturday. shooting for saturday. yeah. 
> 
> also!!! thank you so much for all the feedback i've gotten on this fic???? it's honestly amazing. like. damn. y'all are so nice. thank you so much.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA sorry for the wait, hoo BOY i am tired rn

Max kept his promise of calling David back the next at an earlier time. 8:30 AM, in fact, which surprised David but ultimately worked out well for him considering he didn’t have to go into the office for at least another hour. 

He shoved his phone between his ear and shoulder, while he started to make some coffee. “Hello?”

“ _David! Fucking finally_ ,” Max said. He sounded angry. “ _I called you five times already, but you didn’t pick up. What, do you turn off your phone when you sleep or something_?”

“As a matter of fact, I do!” David waited as his coffee brewed. “You know, turning off your phone during bedtime not only can help you sleep but it also helps the environment by-”

“ _Oh my god_ ,” Max groaned, cutting him off. “ _Shut up. It’s too early for your cheerful bullshit_.”

David’s coffee finally finished. “Well, I as always say, start the day off on a positive note!” He poured his drink into a mug that read  _ World’s Best Counselor  _ on the front. “Maybe give it a try? You never know, getting out of the right side of the bed could improve your whole day.”

“ _I’m already out of bed_ ,” Max huffed. “ _Frankly, I’m starting to regret calling you now. But I’m not surprised. I know exactly what to expect, but I still continue to put myself through this suffering_.”

David rolled his eyes -- something he wouldn’t have actually done if Max had been in the room with him -- and then responded in his usual cheerful voice, “Oh! What do you mean?”

Max huffed again, this time in disgust. “ _I’m just saying David, I already know you’re an idiot. I just don’t know why I bother with you anymore_.”

David felt a laugh rise within him, but stifled it. He didn’t know why, but Max’s persona of hating him was, well,  _ hilarious  _ on an unfathomable level. He tried to keep his voice the same as usual. “So, then why are you calling?”

“ _Uh…._ ” Max hesitated. “ _It’s kinda…._ ”

He trailed off. 

“Mm-hm?” David hummed. He wasn’t doing this to be malicious, of course. He just wanted to see how Max would explain himself. 

(Or, at least, that’s what he told himself.)

“ _Well, okay_ ,” Max finally said. He sounded confident. “ _You got me, David. I actually do have a reason for calling you. It’s because I wanted to hear your voice_.”

David nearly dropped his phone. “What?!”

“ _Yeah. I wanted to hear your stupidly annoying, goddamn irritating, worse-than-nails-on-a-chalkboard voice_ ,” Max continued, gaining momentum. “ _I_ need _to hear your voice David. Or at least interact with you in some way, every day. Or else I’ll die_.”

“What are you talking about?” David sputtered, equal parts confused and shocked.

“ _You see, David, people like me who recognize that life is meaningless and we’re all going to die alone don’t have a lot going for them. It takes a lot to not just off ourselves out of pure boredom and nihilistic despair_.” Max's voice sounded like the embodiment of a smirk. “ _So we have to find a way to function._ ”

“You mean ‘find a reason to live’?” David asked, mentally reciting the national suicide hotline number...just in case. 

“ _Weren’t you listening? I just said people like me don’t believe there are reasonings for living_ ,” Max scoffed. David didn’t like how he said ‘people like me’ considering the topic, but let him continue. “ _Buuut we do believe in finding ways to function. I mean, life isn’t all fucking terrible even if it has no purpose. Might as well stick around so you can watch TV and eat ice cream_.”

“Okay….?”

“ _And I function off of pure, unadulterated spite. I realized this at camp._ ”

“So, Camp Campbell did help you in some way?” David tried, attempting the positive spin/subject change to lighten the mood. 

“ _What_?” Max snorted. “ _Hell no. But it made me realize my need for something to be angry at everyday, so I could be spiteful. And that something was you_.”

The pieces was starting to fall into place for David, and he felt himself tear up. He wasn't sure if that was due to genuine emotion or him just getting too lost in the playing along act. “You mean I really did change a camper’s life? Specifically yours?”

“ _Well, if you wanna make it weird, then sure_.” Max yawned. “ _Anyways, yeah. That’s why I’m calling you. I need my daily dose of annoyance and headaches to fuel my spite, or else I’ll fucking die_.”

“Happy I can help!” David said, meaning it. 

“ _Sure_.” Max yawned again. “ _Anyways. I’m fucking tired. School doesn’t start for another few hours, I’m going back to bed_.”

David suddenly realized something. “Max...why are you calling me at five in the morning?”

“ _Technically, it’s like 5:45 now. But, like, I said I would call you earlier and I did the math. It’s like…almost nine where you are? I think this counts as calling earlier_.” He yawned a third time, as if to just make David feel guilty. “ _Plus, this is better. I just filled my spite-quota now so I’m ready for the rest of the day. It’s a win-win, and then I don’t have to hear you complain about how I’m keeping you up late._ ”

“Max-” David started, as if preparing to launch into a lecture. 

“ _Oh, whoops? Do you hear that? That’s my step-da-- I mean foster dad -- telling me to get off the fuckin’ phone. Here-_ ” David heard silence for the next few seconds, as if Max was holding the phone up in the air for David to hear. And then he was back on. “ _Oh, yeah. He’s mad. Gotta go, David_.”

“I-” David started. 

“ _Fuck you_!” Max interjected. 

The line went dead. 

“Fuck you too,” David muttered, on reflex. 

Looking down at his coffee -- now lukewarm -- he felt as though something was amiss. He took a sip thoughtfully, but then almost immediately spat out it when he realized what he just said.

 

* * *

 

There was a knock at the door just as David was finally getting ready to leave for work. He had just been putting on his shoes when he heard it the first time but initially ignored it, thinking it must have been on of the kids from the neighboring apartment banging on the walls.

But then he heard it again. And again. And again. Soon it was just a rapid banging on his door, so bad that it obviously wasn’t just an accident. 

“Coming!” he called, rushing over. He peeked through the peek-hole first before answering, considering he did live in a city in one of the not-as-nice-as-it-could-have been spots, but then frowned when he couldn’t see out of it. The banging didn’t stop. “Just a sec!”

David undid the lock, and then opened the door. The person who had been banging stared at him, fist still raised in a knocking motion. David stared back. 

It was a dude in his mid-to-late twenties. He had jet black hair, piercing green eyes, and handsome dark skin. He was also wearing an obviously well-loved hoodie and was in need of a good shave, and also smelled vaguely of cigarettes and body odor, so that was a bit off putting. He grinned at David. 

“Can I help you?” he asked. 

The guy kept grinning. “Actually, yeah,” he said, and his voice sounded vaguely familiar but not quite. Almost as if it was the remix of someone else’s voice. “I’m Sam?”

It came out as more of a question, denoting that David should know what his name meant. 

“Uh…” he started. “Sam who?”

“Oh, right.” Sam said. He didn’t stop grinning, and his eye twitched a little. “Sam Sidana.”

“Sidana…?” David repeated. The last name sounded familiar sounded familiar...he just couldn’t exactly put his finger on it…..

He looked back up at Sam’s eyes and then it suddenly hit him. 

He was staring at a grown up version of Max. 

“Oh!” he exclaimed, eyes widening with realization. “You’re Max’s -- ?”

“Brother,” Sam affirmed. He took a step inside. “So, uh, mind if I come in then?”

David stepped to the side. “No, of course, come in.” Sam walked in, and he shut the door behind him. “Uh, what can I do for you?”

Sam looked around the place, as if appraising it. “Well, you know,” he said vaguely, not looking at David. “I’m here to do...the thing.”

David raised an eyebrow. “The thing?”

“You know.” Sam turned back around. “Talk about Max and stuff.”

“Uh, sure.” David snuck a glance at his watch. “Can we actually do this another time? I have to be at work soon and-”

Sam snorted. “You work? From what the little man has told me, I was under the impression you practically lived at that camp all year.” He took a few steps into David’ hallway. “Hey, you only have one bedroom.”

“I only need one?” David watched as Sam proceed to walk off into it. “Hey!”

When he walked in the room, he saw Sam bending over and pressing on the mattress. He looked up at David when he entered. “Huh,” he said. “No holes or anything. You buy it new?”

“Y-yes?” David stared at him. “What are you doing?”

“The thing!” Sam said, more insistent this time. He pushed past David and looked down the hall. “Wait! You  _ do  _ have more than one bedroom, perfect.”

David exasperatedly followed Sam into his storage room. 

The room was dark, on account of how Sam didn’t bother turning on a light, and stacked top to bottom with plastic storage bins and a few loose tchotchkes. He looked around with a satisfied look on his face. 

“Yeah, that’ll do,” he said, turning to David. “So, I’m thinking we move a few of these boxes out -- not all of them though, the kid doesn’t need that much space -- and we squeeze this awesome race car bed I found by luck at one of those goodwill places and then we-”

“Excuse me,” David interrupted. “But -- uh -- just what the heck are you talking about?”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “Ooooh, big man bringing out the cuss words. Heck? What’s next, are you gonna say the c-word?”

“Uh….” David said. 

Sam frowned. “Crap. I meant crap. Not the other c-word. Isn’t that one of those little kid curses? The type your dad hits you on the back of the head for saying, and then turns around and screams the word ‘fuck’ for no reason?”

David blinked several times to show his confusion. “Uh...yeah. Sure. So about what you were saying-”

“O-oh, yeah! Uh.” Sam grinned, but it looked forced. In fact, all of his grins looked forced, as if he was nervous. “I was saying. I’ll hook you up with a sweet race car bed. That cool? I just found it at one of those goodwill places. In a dumpster. In a dumpster outside one of those goodwill places. And I got nowhere to put it.”

“I don’t really need a-”

“Sure you do! That’s why Max sent me here, to ask if you wanted a sick-ass race car bed that may or may not have termites in the wooden frame.”

He turned to leave. 

“Wait.” David grabbed him by the shoulder. Sam jumped, but turned. He kept grinning and looked terrified. 

“Yeah, man?” he said.

David frowned. “I have...a lot of questions for you. But first.” He hesitated for a moment. “Are you...also in contact with Max, then?”

Sam looked confused for a moment, and then his eyes widened. “Oh! Oh, yeah. The little man calls me almost everyday. He loves it at his foster ‘rents’ place. Loves school. Loves life.”

“Uh-huh,” David narrowed his eyes in suspicion but then, without missing a beat, replied enthusiastically. “Well, that’s great to hear! I’m glad he’s doing good.”

Sam grinned, and this one seemed genuine. “Yeah! I’m proud the kid. He’s really making a bad situation good.”

“Right,” David said, tone perfect as ever but internally distrusting every word Sam said. “Anyways, you just wanted to come talk about that random race car bed? That’s all you wanted to talk about, to a complete and random stranger that you only have a vague connection too?”

(Okay, so maybe some drips of passive-aggression slipped in with his tone.)

“Yeah!” Sam said, “and, uh, to survey the place to make sure it was safe -- for the bed, I mean.” Sam glanced around nervously, his hands fluttering a bit. He leaned in. “Listen.” David felt him press something into his hand. “You’re going to be doing us a real favor, okay?” Sam held his hand and closed his fingers around the small plastic bag he just gave him. “This is for…your troubles.”

Sam pulled away, and David looked down to see a plastic bag filled with money. He was half surprised to see it wasn’t drugs. He held it up, and pulled out some cash. It was all twenty dollar bills.

David quickly counted. “This is...nearly 300 dollars.”

Sam grimaced. “I know. I’ll get you more next time. This is just like….a down payment. Or insurance money. Or whatever. I don’t know, I was never good with math.” He sighed. “Look, man, this might seem confusing....”

“It  _ is  _ confusing, now that you mention it.”

“I know. Just take the money, and don’t ask any questions.You’ll understand in time.”

Sam started to walk away. David stared after him for a full second, before his brain processed what was happening. He quickly followed after him. 

Sam was already at his front door. 

“Wait!” David called, for the second time. He was able to grab Sam by the shoulder, and this time he didn’t jump. David looked at him in bewilderment as he turned to face him. “What the actual hell just happened?”

Sam smiled, genuinely. “Oh, so you upgraded to middle-school level curses now?”

“Oh, be quiet.” For the first time in a while, David scowled. He held up the bag of twenties. “I don’t want your money, by the way.”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “But it’s yours.”

“But why are you giving it to me?” David tried shoved it back at him, into his hoodie pocket. “Is it drug money? Ransom money? Money stolen from an ATM, or something?”

Sam made a face. “Why the  _ fuck  _ would it be any of that? I thought Max at least mentioned to you that-”

He stopped short.

“What did Max mention to me?” David stopped struggling, and looked down at the money. “And what does this have to do with it?”

Sam sighed. “It’ll all make sense soon. About a week I think. And, no, you’re not in any danger -- and neither is Max. Just take the money.” He looked up, staring David down with his piercing green eyes. “Also, if Max asks, I was never here. He didn’t want me to come. But I had to...make _ sure _ , even if I have no clue what I’m doing.”

“Uh…?” David mumbled, more confused than ever. 

Sam’s eyes turned sad. “Hey, you’re a good guy, David. I can see why the little man chose you. Sorry I made you late for work.”

David’s eyes widened. “Oh, shit!”

Sam smiled. “Heck yeah, someone’s upgraded to adult words now!”

David rolled his eyes at him.

Sam laughed, opened the door, and stepped out of David’s apartment. “I’ll see you...soon, man. Have a nice life until then.” He turned, and started walking away. “By the way, I wasn’t joking about that race car bed! I’ll bring it by later this week!”

And with that he was gone, already passing through the door of the stairwell and running down three flights of stairs. 

David looked down at the money in his hands, shutting the door behind him and making his way to his bedroom. He bent down and brought out the fireproof safe he had under his bed, and promptly shoved the bag of money in it once he cracked it open. He then shut it and placed it next to him. He flopped back on his bed. 

“Max,” he muttered to his ceiling. “What the absolute  _ fuck  _ have you gotten me into?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shdskfjdgl;ggfd hey ny'all. sorry for the wait. i got caught up playing ddadds and watching voltron, and then i ended up going on vacation without my laptop sooooo no updates then. but updates now, so that's what matters.
> 
> anyways, shout out to my good buddies beck and tory (i'll edit in links to their tumblr blogs later), who beta read this chapter and who are just generally good peeps
> 
> also now....yeah, this chapter was prob confusing. but all will be explained in time. hopefully really soon. the plots rlly gonna start NEXT chapter. sha-bam. also i love sam. 
> 
> anyways, again, thank you all for the fucking amazing feedback i've gotten on this fic???? like. holy h*ck. wowie. i am so tired right now but i love you all so much. thank n'yall. good night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i usually finish responding to comments before posting the next chapter, but i was excited so w h o o p s

Max wasn’t technically allowed to make phone calls in this house.

Well, no -- that wasn’t entirely true. Nobody ever said he  _couldn't_ make phone calls, but as the Baby Boomer legally put in charge of him once said, “We shouldn’t have to tell you _not_ to do these things,  _idiot._ ”

It was pretty much _de facto_ , as the Romans said, that Max wasn’t allowed to make phone calls. If he had learned one thing from last time he’d been caught calling David, it was that no words needed to be spoken to know of his guardians’ disapproval. Especially if the amount of  _dishes_ he had done as a punishment had been an example of anything.

So, the new question remained; was he allowed to run away from home, or was that one of those  _de facto_ things as well?

He guessed he would find that out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> keeping this note short but i think i'll do all max chapters as lil vignettes until we reach a certain point. it's better that way. also, the plot is now set in motion ;3


	5. Chapter 5

Sam, in fact, did not bring a race car bed to David’s house later that week. Nor did he ever give David a phone number, so it wasn’t as though he could call him and inquire about it. 

Not that he wanted to, anyways. The entire experience had left David somewhat shaken and he ended up calling the locksmith the next day to get his locks changed. He even briefly considered moving, but then realized that would quite literally make him go broke. 

He wanted to ask Max about his brother when he called next, but it completely slipped his mind as soon as he heard the kid speak. There was just something about talking to Max that made him lose focus on whatever he currently was thinking about. Sure, his mind wandered occasionally every now and then when Max got on a roll (the kid really wasn’t that good of a storyteller), but he always started paying attention at just the right time. 

Today was no exception, in fact, and David counted himself extra lucky considering there were several points in which he needed to respond. Especially when he heard Max start to sniffle. 

“Are you crying?” David asked into the phone, about five minutes into their conversation. Max had called him at exactly 8 AM again, but luckily it was a Saturday. That meant they could stay on the phone for as long as they wanted; David didn’t have to go to work and Max could catch up on sleep after they were done. “Max, what’s wrong?”

“ _Nothing_ ,” Max mumbled. He sniffled again, not helping his case. “ _I’m fucking fine, David. Now tell me more about that thing you were talking about_.”

“I wasn’t talking about anything?” David asked. “You were telling me about a book report you did at school and how you got a B, and I said ‘good job’ and-”

“ _Shut up, David! God, read the atmosphere_.” Max huffed. “ _I could’ve sworn you were talking about something_.”

“Well...you did pause awfully long after I asked what book you did it on.” David tried to keep his voice light. “You didn’t forget the name of it already, did you, silly?” He felt as though he sounded vaguely condescending, but hoped Max wouldn’t pick up on it. “Let’s see you, said it was about a superhero team with aliens….”

“ _ Guardians of the Galaxy _ ,” Max muttered. 

“What was that?” David shifted his phone. “I didn’t-”

“ _ Guardians of the  _ Fucking  _ Galaxy _ ,” Max repeated. “ _I did my book report on_ _ Guardians of the Galaxy _ _. There. You happy_?”

David was a bit surprised over Max’s hostile tone, especially considering the topic. “Uh...sure. I think I’ve heard of it. Was it a good book?”

“ _God, you really are an idiot_.” Max gave a big sigh on the other end of the phone. “ _It’s...not a…._ ” He hesitated. “ _You know what? Yeah. It was a fucking amazing book. Best one I ever read. And you know I hate reading_.”

“You do?”

“ _Uh, yeah. I literally told you all about that when we first started the call_.” Max tsked at him. “ _Don’t tell me you weren’t paying attention, David_.”

“Oh, no, I was!” David insisted, lying. He had put Max on speaker and had been doing a quick kitchen clean-up while the kid ranted at him. He had started listening in during the last few minutes of it, though, and was able to pay attention to the fact that Max was obviously proud of his school work. “You hate reading. Just slipped my mind for a moment.”

“ _Suuuuuuuure_.”

David smiled and rolled his eyes. “I am still proud of you, though! You did something you didn’t like and still did a good job. And I know it wasn’t easy, especially with a book as complicated as it sounded….” He paused for a second, wondering why he had gotten the sudden urge to praise Max again. “Keep up the good work!”

Max was silent on the other end of the phone. David then heard a dull thud.

“Max?” he asked. 

There was some shuffling on the other end, and then some heavy breathing. And then a sniffle and a small whimper. 

“Max?!” David asked again. 

“ _Shut the fuck up_ ,” Max threw back at him, voice tight. “ _Just shut the fuck up, David. Fuck you. Fuck you, David_.”

David bit his lip, unsure of what to do. He got the sudden urge to say “fuck you too” back at Max, like he had the other times before, but was thankfully able to restraint it. 

For lack of a better idea or a more clear course of action, he waited.

“ _I…._ ” Max started. He took a shaky breath. “ _There’s a second Guardians of the Galaxy movie_ ,” he said. “ _You should watch it._ ”

“Uh….” David started, utterly baffled. “Alright.”

“ _Shit. I mean book. I meant book. There’s a second Guardians of the Galaxy book, and I think you should read it_.” Max paused. “ _It’s about dads_.”

David raised an eyebrow. “I thought it was about space superheroes.”

“ _That too_.

“Uh, sure. I’ll read the first one, and then the second one. On your recommendation.” David then paused, unsure of really where to lead this conversation. “It has to be good if you liked it, then.”

“ _Oh, shut up_ ,” Max snapped. He sounded a bit more like his regular self in that moment. “ _Don’t get all sappy on me. You don’t have to read it. It’s a dumb book, anyways. Some people didn’t like it because it made them think about their uncomfortable relationships with people that they’d rather forget_.”

“Aw, darn, I better not read it then,” David said, for once in his adult life attempting dark humor. 

Max snorted. _“You? Nah, I think you’ll be just fine. I doubt you’ve been through anything as fucked up as Star-lord and Gamora have_.”

David assumed those were characters from the series, and felt a bit irked at the fact that Max believed he had no past troubles. Of course, he had to remind himself, the kid was just that -- a kid -- and if wanted to be pretentious about those things, David should let him. He would learn in time, anyways. 

“So, tell me more about these Star-lords and Gun-moras,” he said, jokingly getting the names wrong on purpose. 

Much to his intended effect, Max groaned. “ _Those are not their names._ ”

David grinned to himself. “Then you better tell me all about them.”

“ _Are you sure? I mean, they’re pretty cool but-_ ” Max stopped short, then gave a big, long yawn. “ _Actually, on second thought, let’s save this conversation for when I see you next._ ”

David frowned. “When you  _ call  _ me next.”

“ _Yeah, same thing_.” Max yawned again. A genuine yawn, as if he was tired. “ _Hey, listen, David. I won’t be calling you from this phone the next time, so if you see an unfamiliar number it’s probably me.”_

“Oh, did your family get a new system or something?”

Max snorted. “ _Something like that_.” He then yawned one final time, because all good things come in threes. “ _God, I am tired. This bus trip is gonna be_ __hell_ … _ .”

“You’re going somewhere?” David felt a bit of panic bubble in his gut, and he didn’t know why, but kept his voice relatively calm. “What, like, a vacation?”

“ _Yeah, sure. Something like that_.” David pictured Max was grinning, giving that usual smirk he did when he was up to something but still wasn’t too deep that he couldn’t play innocent. “ _You’ll see_.”

“Okay,” David said, unsure of how else to respond.

“ _Hey, David_?” Max said. “ _I’m gonna hang up now. Don’t do that thing where you yell into the phone for five minutes like you do when I stop to breathe or something. I’m pretty sure it’ll piss off the FBI agent that was assigned to spy on you more than usual_.”

“How do you know I have an FBI agent on my tail?”

“ _Well, first, the government spies on us all and whoever thinks different is lying to themselve or is part of the government_ ,” Max declared, rattling that off like it was something drilled into his head until he memorized it. “ _Second, you literally work for a man who is wanted in most countries and is assumed to be dead via political assassination in Thailand_.”

“Oh, right,” David said, wondering how a ten year old was able to piece together Cameron Campbell’s criminal record by only interacting with him a few times. 

“ _So, I’m going to hang up_ ,” Max affirmed again. “And I probably won’t be able to call you at 8 AM tomorrow.”

“That’s okay, I understand if you’re going on a trip.” David understood, but something seemed off about what Max was saying. “You have to play by your foster parents’ rules.”

For some reason, Max gave a small laugh. “ _Right_.”

“Uh-huh….” 

“ _Anyways_ ,” Max said, “ _this is the end of the call. Fuck you, David. There, I said. Now I’ going to hang-_ ”

David hesitated a full second before acting on pure impulsive. “Fuck you too,” slipped out of his mouth. 

The universe decided it hated David in that moment, because in the next second he heard a surprised yelp. Without thinking, he pulled his phone away from his face and pressed the “End Call” button, and then stared at his screen in horror.

“Fuck you,” he said, more to himself than the room around him. “Fuck you too, David.”

 

* * *

Max was true to his word, surprisingly as always. Sure, this time he didn’t call David at 3 AM -- but it was still a rather inconvenient time for him. 

“Aw, shit,” he cursed very loudly in front of the class of young adults he was standing in front of, piece of chalk still in hand. He pulled out his phone and saw it was a number he didn’t recognize. “Ugh, not now Max.”

He had meant to think that last part, or at least mutter it under his breath. But by his class’s sudden giggles and direct attention now focused on him, David realized he had not, in fact, said it to himself at all. 

“Uh…” he mumbled, phone still buzzing wildly in his hand. He looked up at his class, feeling as though he had an audience as he stared out at the raised-auditorium styled room. Twenty pairs of eyes ogled at him with curiosity. “I, uh-”

“Just take the phone call, dude!” one student from the back of the class called at him, and then, added in an after thought, “I mean, uh, Professor!”

David gave them all one last look, then hurried over to the door. “Jamie’s in charge!” he called over his shoulder, disregarding the fact that they were all adults. 

He picked up on the last ring. 

“ _David! Fuckin’ finally, I’ve been waiting-_ ” Max started. 

“I”m kinda in the middle of something right now,” David interrupted, now feeling embarrassed and a bit nervous over the fact that he walked out of class. “I’m sorry Max, but can I call you back later?”

There was a heavy silence on the other line. 

“ _Uh…._ ” Max started. “ _Yeah. Sure. I get it_.”

His voice sounded different. The light, teasing tone he had been using earlier was gone. Now it was replaced by a tightness, a vocal inflection that implied something was wrong. David felt guilt wash over him. 

“Max, I’m really sorry, it’s just I’m at work and I-”

It was David’s turn to be interrupted. “ _No. I get it_ ,” Max repeated, voice still not sounding right. “ _I get it, David. I’ll call you back tomorrow_.”

“No, it’s not that, I can call you back later-”

“ _I’ll call you. Tomorrow_.” Max paused again. He tended to do that a lot in phone conversations whenever he was holding something back. “ _I...I’m sorry for bothering you_.”

That was the first time David had ever heard an apology out of the kid, but it didn’t register with him on account of how he focused in on the latter part. “No! No, you’re not bothering me. I just can’t talk right now. You are totally not bothering me.”

“ _Sure_ ,” Max said, voice cracking. 

“I-” David started. 

“ _Bye_.”

The line went dead. David slumped against the wall, feeling like shit even though he only had a vague idea of what he did wrong. Max, the most confident and entitled yet laidback kid ever, got upset over a slight rejection to talk? With said rejection having a good reason? What alternate dimension had David entered….

After about a minute of pondering and feeling bad, David realized he probably should get back to class. He shoved his phone in his pocket, and tried to focus on the task ahead of him as soon as he opened the door. Purely academic time. Focusing on his students, the class, and his methods of teaching. 

Or so he thought. 

“Who’s Max?” one of his students obnoxiously asked. 

Another one then piped up, “A friend?”

“A landlord?"

“Your vague connection to the criminal underground?”

“Your lover?”

At that last one, the entire class stopped and went “ooooooh” like they were in middle school. David’s mind didn’t process what had been said at first, too baffled by all that was happening and at the fact that his class was that interested in his personal life, but when his brain finally caught up, his mouth opened without him thinking. 

“Ewwwwwww,” he said, disgust evident on his face. “What the fu-”

He then stopped himself before he just cursed in front of his whole class. 

“Oooooh,” the student who had said it said. His name was Jared, and he was one of David’s least favorite students on account of how rude he could be. Jared raised an eyebrow. “An ex-lover then?”

David stared at him in disbelief. “Why do you want to know?”

Jared smirked. “Just curious, professor! I mean, you did make us take those ‘get to know me’ quizzes on the first day so you could get a feel for us. You know all about us, isn’t it fair we get to know about you?”

The class “ooooooh-ed” again. 

Despite being one, David sincerely hated younger millennials. “He’s my….” He then paused for a moment. What was Max to him? To say he was a kid he had at camp and was still in contact with might sound kinda creepy…..

“...Nephew,” he finally said. 

“Oh.” Jared blinked. “Okay.”

David sighed. “There. Happy now? Let’s get back to class.”

“Why was he calling you?” another student piped up. Her name was Laurie. She was one of Jared’s lackey’s and always tried joining in his class-clown antics despite how painfully obvious it was that she was truly the awkward nerd type deep down. “What, was it a family emergency?”

“I really don’t need to tell you this,” David said, turning back to the blackboard. “So I won’t! Now, let’s get back to how the genetics of certain trees can make them-”

“I can’t believe our professor is an U.I.L.F!” one student staged whispered to their neighbor, fully intending for David to hear. “You know, like a D.I.L.F. but an uncle!”

David accidentally snapped his chalk in half.

“Moving on-” he said, trying to sound assertive. It came out as more of a squeak. 

“I’ll say,” the U.I.L.F. student’s neighbor said genuinely. 

This was going to be a long class. 

 

* * *

 

David had made Max cry not once, not three times, but twice in the past two days, and he didn’t know why, and at this point he was too afraid to ask. But, ask he was going to try. And he was also going to try to ask about Sam as well, seeing as he forgot the the previous two times. He had even written these things on his hand so he wouldn’t forget. He was prepared for Max’s next phone call.

Well, he would be, if the kid ever called him. 

Okay, sure. Max hadn’t called him at 8 AM. He hadn’t called him at 2 PM either. It worked for David, and he reasoned that Max wasn’t able to call at the first time and that he was probably just being considerate about the second. But when the clock his 5 PM, a knot of worry and guilt started twisting in his gut. 

Had Max gotten angry with him?

David almost hated to admit it, seeing as Max probably didn’t feel the same way, but he cared about the kid. Probably in the most uncreepy way a camp counselor could about a kid. He wanted to see Max grow up and have a happy and healthy life. 

Sure, that’s what most people felt towards children they met and formed a connection to -- but David felt as though he held these feelings stronger. As if he wanted to be a part of that happy and healthy growing up thing, as if he were the one that would ensure it would happen. And he knew while that part wasn’t creepy per se, it was definitely weird. 

But, frankly, he couldn’t care. 

Well, no, that was a lie. He did care about that in specific regards to how Max would react to that information. He was pretty sure the kid would balk at the thought and then laugh in David’s face if he so much as mentioned that he even cared about him. Max knew he cared about him, of course, but when being confronted with David’s vaguely parental feelings towards him would probably make him “nope” out of the situation entirely. 

But, doing as he did best, and repressing all his negative thoughts that resulted in a typically-hyper-cheerful personality as a coping mechanism, David tried not to think about that too much. Or at all. Definitely never. But it was kinda hard not to, considering he  _ was  _ preeeeeetty sure Max hated him again. 

It was 5:30 PM now. The sun had sunk in the sky, but hadn’t quite set yet on account of how it was still operating on a summer schedule despite how school had been in session for a week. David was in very small living room, which was adjacent to his kitchen and front door, nervously biting on his thumb nail. His phone was in his free hand, buzzing away as it-

His phone was buzzing. 

Without checking the number, David answered. “Hello?”

“ _Sup, motherfucker?_ ” Max said, casual as can be.

Relief washed over David. Whatever had happened yesterday was obviously forgotten and forgiven. “Max! Hi, hello!”

He could picture Max rolling his eyes at him. “ _Hello to you too, David. What’s got you in a good mood -- no, wait, lemme guess. Everything in existence is currently making you happy because all things are good and there is no evil in your little world, right_?”

“Yes, absolutely correct,” David said as seriously as he could while still sounding upbeat. “You know that everything is always sunshine and lollipops here at Camp David! You should stop by sometime and join in on the fun.”

“ _Ha, about that…_.” Max gave an unusual laugh, then cleared his throat. “ _Actually, nevermind_.”

David snorted. “Okay.”

“ _I can’t talk long today, David_ ,” Max then said, as if launching into an explanation. “ _I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I’m all out of bubblegum_.”

David nodded, getting into it, even though Max couldn’t see. “Oh, really?”

“ _Oh, yeah. I totally gonna fight some guy right now. In fact-_ ” David could hear as Max pulled the phone away from his face, and there was some muffled yelling like what happened during their first phone call. Instead of a nondescript man yelling back, however, Max came on again. “ _See that? I’m gonna kick that trucker’s ass after I finish up here_.”

“A trucker?” 

“ _I’m at a truck stop, David. And I gotta go soon or else my ride will leave without me_.”

“Your foster parents wouldn’t leave you there, Max!” David exclaimed, sincerely hoping the kid was joking. “Legally and morally, I don’t think that would be a good decision on their part.”

“ _Ha. Right. My foster parents_.” Max gave another one of those awkward laughs. “I’m not here with them.”

David frowned. “Then who-”

“ _Listen, David. I...I did something bad. Something really bad. About two nights ago_.” Max sighed. “ _I...I think I made the right decision though. Despite how it was bad. I think I broke some rules, that weren’t technically rules and I…._ ”

He trailed off for a moment.

“ _Anyways_ ,” he suddenly continued. “ _I just need to, like, warn you. I guess_.”

“Are you okay?” David asked, ignoring what Max just said. 

“ _Yeah, I’m fine. I have enough money to get me to the next state where_ -”

“Max, did you run away?!”

Silence. 

“ _The cops will probably come to your house_ ,” he said, all traces of joking gone from his voice. “ _I know they will. Everyone knows I’ve been talking to you_.”

“Max?” David insisted. “Please, c’mon, did you run aw-”

“ _Admit everything. Don’t lie. You haven’t done anything wrong, like, ever even. You’re actually a good guy, David. You won’t get in trouble._ ”

David swallowed nervously. “Max, c’mon, I-”

“ _D_ on’t mention Sam,” he continued. “ _And when you see him, act like you’ve never met him before. Play dumb. Also play along. You’ll...you’ll understand when the time comes, if you’re actually not as big of an idiot as you act like_.”

“I-”

“ _David_ ,” Max said, coming to a close. “ _Whatever happens...I just wanna say thanks, you fucking bastard. I hate you so, so goddamn much. Fuck you, David. Fuck you_.”

“Fuck you too,” David said back. 

Max laughed. “ _Now you’re getting it_.”

There was one last moment of silence between them while on the phone. 

“ _Bye_ ,” Max said. 

There was a click, and the line went dead.

  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im kinda pressed on time rn but hey here's the chapter
> 
> thank you to my amazing good buddy tory for beta reading <33 (i'll edit in a link to their blog later)
> 
> i might actually end up being late for my rescue squad job because i wanted to post this lol so if anyone dies i dont think i have a good excuse
> 
> anyways, thanks y'all for your awesome feedback!!! i'll try to update more soon next time. love y'all <33


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter: *holding a gun to my head*  
> me, writing it while tear stream down my face: why is writing so fucking hard
> 
> also, alternatively
> 
> me: wow time to update!  
> my laptop, shooting me point blank with a shotgun: fuck you
> 
> also i hope y'all enjoy this its like 3 times longer than my usual chapters

The police station was  _ cold.  _

David shivered slightly as he sat on the metal bench, waiting as the cop who has been quite nice to him only minutes before yelled angrily into a phone about “runaways” and “irresponsible legal guardians” to what David assumed was his supervisor. He winced every time a “fuck” escaped the cop’s mouth as well, but not because he had a slight aversion to cursing -- rather, it made him uncomfortable due to how the casualness of it reminded him of Max. 

David looked down at his hands and thought vaguely about their last conversation. Max has instructed him a few simple tasks….but frankly he didn’t think he would be able to follow through with them. Especially since a few key components were missing from the equation. 

The first; Sam was nowhere to be found. There was no one to “play along with” like Max had asked him to. 

The second; David apparently wasn’t there for questioning. 

From the moment he found out Max had run away and his initial panic-attack level concern over the kid turned into just normal concern, he began to fret over the fact that he might be accused of, well, being a “creep” -- in PG terms, that was. The situation of a camp counselor keeping in contact with a kid well after camp was over sounded bad to begin with. But the fact the kid had run away assumedly to where said camp counselor lived? (If David had guessed right on why Max wanted his address.)

That seemed fucked up no matter how you put. 

But apparently that was  _ not  _ why he was here. The cops had told him over the phone that he just needed to come down to the station, and that it was okay if he took his time. He had a vague suspicion that they were supposed to tell him  _ why  _  hey were ordering him there, but whatever their reasoning was they kept it hidden. It was almost as if they thought he already knew was what going in -- and they certainly acted like it as well. 

“Hey,” the cop on the phone suddenly called over to him, putting one hand over the receiver. “Sorry for the wait! I’ll be about two more minutes then you can go see him.”

_ Him _ .

David somewhat hated the fact that he already knew who they meant.

The cop chatted a bit more, screamed a few more curse words, then hung up. He walked over to David with a friendly but unfitting smile, and David stood to greet him. 

“Follow me,” he said, nodding towards a door that obviously led to the back of the station. 

David followed. The door only opened when the cop waved a key-fob by a sensor near the handle. It led into the inner part of the station, a hallway with offices on either side of it. A set of sensor-locked double doors were at the end of it, which David guessed led to holding cells. 

“Must be hard on your family,” the cop casually started. “I mean, running away to grandma’s house down the street is one thing -- but to your uncle’s, in another state? Practically on the other side of the country? Man, your nephew was determined.”

“Ah -- yeah,” David said, unsure of what he was talking about. “We were all worried.”

The cop nodded his head. “Anyways -- here he is.”

The stopped next to the fourth private room on the right, and the cop open the door, leading him inside. 

It was painted a muted white, except the floor which was thinly covered with that type of carpet most offices had. The desk was a mess, covered in papers and family pictures, and sitting in front of it with his back facing the door was-

“Max?” David said softly.

Max’s head whipped around. “David?” 

He hopped to his feet, almost making the chair topple when he did. David didn’t notice. He suddenly felt himself drop on one knee and his arms flew open as Max came at him, and he engulfed him in a full body hug. He felt thinner since the last time David had seen him...what, maybe three, four weeks ago? A month? Two months? It didn’t matter. All that mattered was Max was safe and that he-

David’s train of thought stopped when he realized Max wasn’t pulling away. If anything, he seemed to be pulling himself  _ closer _ , and burying his face in David’s shoulder...which also suddenly felt a bit...wet. 

The cop coughed awkwardly behind them. David tried to loosen his grip on Max, to let him know it was time to let go, but he stuck on like a tick. He also seemed to be shaking. A bit confused but heart aching for the kid, he thought fast and then simply moved his hands and picked Max up in one swoop. 

Max yelped when David stood and for a second David thought he was going to let go, but instead he clung on tighter. David moved his one hand so that it rested on the back of Max’s head, and tried to stroke it in a way he hoped was comforting. He was confused as all hell and had about a million questions, but some force of the universe was telling him this was the right thing to do instead of demanding answers from Max right away. 

He then turned to face the cop. 

“So….” he started, “I’m guessing you’re in contact with his dad. He told us you were coming when he called him and said we had him n custody this morning. Now you guys just gotta wait here a few hours until he gets here….”

“Yeah,” David said, not having a flying fuck of an idea of what was going on. 

The cop sighed and glanced over at Max. “You know, this is the most emotion I’ve see out of the kid ever since he got here. The whole time he was just starin’ black ahead, not saying anything except when we asked him questions. It was kinda creepy.”

Max then moved slightly and the cop seemed to realize that he could hear him. “Oh uh, no offense though.” He went back to addressing David. “He’s just a bit shaken, is my guess.  Look, I’m technically not supposed to let you do this but….”

David raised his eyebrows. 

“There’s a cafe, like, right across the street from here. I think the station is scaring him -- I mean, it is a pretty scary environment. But if you’re back here within half an hour….”

David realized what he was suggesting. 

“Oh! Yes, of course.” He then turned to Max, whispering to him. “Is that okay, if we leave then come back? If it’s a cafe, then there’s probably....black coffee, if you want.”

Max didn’t raise his head, but he nodded. 

The cop smiled at them. It was still unfitting, but David appreciated how considerate he was being. “Half an hour, right?”

“And not a minute less,” the cop said, with a wink. “Let me walk you out….”

Back through the sensor-activated door and through the office part of the station, and through the entryway, David carried Max while following about one step behind the cop. The cop then watched them from the front steps as they went across the street, making sure they actually went to the cafe. He went inside when he saw them enter. 

David was still carrying Max. It was though he had fallen asleep, and his somewhat limp body seemed to attest to that fact. Regardless, David went up to the counter and placed an order for one large black coffee and one small hot chocolate. The teenage girl behind the counter coyly asked if the hot chocolate was for the “tuckered out little guy” in his arms, and David didn’t have the heart to say no. 

“Hey, Max,” he murmured into the kid’s hair. “I -- uh, have to put you down for a second. Is that okay?”

Almost immediately, Max’s head popped up. His eyes were a bit red, and he yawned as if he had been sleeping. He nodded, and David placed him down. He clutched onto David’s pant leg and hid behind him when the teenage girl waved at him. 

David paid and then thankfully got their drinks within record time. On the hot chocolate cup, the girl had drawn a bunny or a bear or something with a smiley face and furry ears on it. David smiled a thanks at her and she waved as he and Max went outside to sit at one of the cafe’s patio tables -- preferably one where the teenage girl wouldn’t be able to see him giving a little kid a big ass cup of straight caffeinated bean juice. 

Max also seemed to want to be out of her sight. David quickly ushered them to a table in the far corner of the patio area. He and Max then sat, and he distributed their drinks.

He then realized how dumb of it it was of him to order hot drinks at the beginning of September. 

Max didn’t seem to mind though. If anything, he seemed to be enjoying his scalding hot coffee by taking a big gulg, despite how it was still about 79 degrees out. 

David took a sip of his own drink then, burning his tongue, and watched the kid in front of him, thinking about how confused he was about this whole situation. 

Where would he even begin to ask….

“Hey,” Max finally said, breaking the silence. They were the only ones out there. “Uh...thanks. For the coffee, I mean.” As if making a point, he took another large gulp of it, as if it wasn't scalding hot. “I appreciate it.”

“Any time,” David said. He waited a moment. “Max-”

“David-” Max started at the same time. 

They both shut their mouths. 

“You go first,” David said.

Max sighed, looking sad for a moment. “I...I just can’t believe….” He looked down, and his shoulders started shaking. “I-I can’t….”

David leaned in, concerned. “Max? Max, what’s wrong?”

He looked up at David, his eyes glistening with tears. “I just can’t….fucking believe that…..” His lip trembled. “...that they fucking bought that….”

He then suddenly burst into uproarious laughter, tears streaming down his face and gripping his stomach so hard that his whole body shook.

David went reeling back. “ _ What _ ?”

“They bought that whole act!” Max choked out through giggles. “They bought that whole ‘little kid in shock’ bit! Right down to the part when you fucking carried me out of there.” Max sucked in a few breathes before laughing some more. “Holy  _ shit _ , that was hilarious.”

Not for the first time that day, or week, David was confused. “What the  _ heck _ , Max?”

“And then that barista! Man, I had her  _ sold _ .” Max grinned and shook his head. “Who’s the  _ real  _ actor of theater camp, Preston?”

He fist pumped and made other “boo-yah!” gestures at the thought of rubbing that fact in the not-there Preston’s face. David stared at him incredulously. 

“That was all  _ fake _ ?”

Max sat back and took another large swig of his coffee. “Uh, yeah. Duh.” Another gulp. “You weren’t too bad, don’t worry, David.” He then seemed to consider it. “Actually, your performance could stand to be a little more genuine. Maybe shed some fuckin’ tears next time, that’ll  _ really  _ sell it.”

He then finished off the rest of his coffee, and placed his cup down with as much of a bang a paper cup could make against a plastic table. 

David pushed his own drink to the side, suddenly not wanting it. “It was all….fake?” he repeated for the second time. 

Max rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me that I even tricked  _ you _ . And here I was thinking that you’re not as big of an idiot as I thought you were.”

That was somewhat of a blow to both David’s heart and ego, but he pushed it down. This was  _ Max  _ \-- to be honest, he really shouldn’t have expected anything else. He felt the need to bit down on his lip, but instead he forced out a grin. 

“Well, I gotta say, you did have me convinced!” he said cheerfully. “Maybe next year you should join Preston in theater camp. I’m sure he would appreciate that someone else like acting as much as him!”

Max rolled his eyes. “Sure, David. As soon as hell freezes over, that’ll happen.” He didn’t seem to pick on David’s sudden demeanor change. “Anyways, as I’m sure you noticed -- or, at least, I  _ hoped  _ you noticed -- Plan A failed. We’re working on Plan B.”

David frowned. “What was Plan A?”

Max huffed. “You know. The one I told you on the phone. Play along. Confess everything. Act like you don’t know Sam.”

“Oh.” David blinked. “Yes, I can see how that failed, considering your brother isn’t even here.”

“Oh, don’t worry. He’ll come.” Max looked so sure of that fact that David almost believed it himself. “Trust me. It’s all part of Plan B.”

“And what exactly is Plan B?”

“Well, I’ll tell you what Plan B is,  _ after  _ we get more coffee” Max said, suddenly fishing around in his pocket. He slammed a crumpled up twenty down on the table. “I’m paying this time. I’ll get you another hot chocolate, so then we’re even.”

Max hopped to his feet, and started making his way over to the door. David stood for a moment and then quickly followed after him. 

“Wait,” he said, stopping him just as he approached the door. “Max, you just had a cup of coffee! I really think you should wait a bit before-”

Max glared up at him, then sighed. “David. Stupid, naive David.” He suddenly looked David in the eyes, haunted expression on his face. “I have not had coffee in like….forever. I’m going through withdrawal. I think I might die if I go any longer without it.” 

“No,” David said, somewhat incredulously. 

Max rolled his eyes. “Well fine. You don’t have to come in then.”

He reached to pull the door open. 

David pressed it closed. 

“Max,” David said in an unpleasant tone, sounded vaguely disappointed. “We can get you another coffee later. Let’s just let this one ride out of your system first, and then we can maybe talk about getting you a  _ small  _ decaf.”

“Geez.” Max huffed and crossed his arms. “Who died and made you my dad?”

“Well, evidently your father  _ is  _ coming,” David said pointedly. “And if you want me to help you and him with this Plan B of yours, then you’d better tell just what the  _ heck  _ is going on."

Max frowned, arms still crossed, and stared at the ground. The furrowed eyebrows on his face smoothed out and he groaned. “Ugh. Fine. You win.” He threw his arms up. “But thia is only because you said we could get coffee again later. Otherwise, I would have literally teared your arm off to get myself cup.”

“Torn,” David corrected, “the past tense of ‘tear’ is to-”

“Shut up!” 

Max shook his head and stormed off to their table, looking like an angry kitten. David shook his own head in amusement and followed him, not noticing how the barista from the cafe had watched them whole time through the glass door and wall-windows. 

“So,” David started after they were both seated again. “Plan B?”

“Plan B,” Max huffed. 

“What’s Plan B?”

“It’s nothing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Plan B is literally ‘do nothing’.” Max sighed. “This...really isn’t how I imagined things going at all. At this point, I’m prepared to just fill you in and have us improvise. I mean, I normally would tell you to back out but I think you’re in too deep at this point….” He looked down. “I’m, uh, sorry, David. Like, I still hate you. If you tell anyone ever that I apologized to you, you’re a dead man. But sorry.”

Max wouldn’t look up at him. He fidgeted with one of the drawstrings on his hoodie. 

David watched him for a second, then leaned forward. “Hey,” he said, “it’s okay. I still have absolutely no clue what’s going on, but if I can help you in some way, I want to.”

Max looked up at him.

“Fuck you,” he said. 

David smiled. “Fuck you too.”

Max grinned back. “So,” he said, sitting up straight and leaning a bit forward as he began talking, “Plan B. Inform, improvise, and then we do something else that begins with an ‘I’. But for now, inform then improvise. That’s Plan B.”

David nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me!”

“I’m going to ignore that pun. Anyways, you know about my brother Sam, right?” Max asked. “He called you the other day? He told me about it.”

“Oh yeah, I met him when --” David started, but then cut himself off. 

“You met Sam?” Max raised an eyebrow, then let out a string of curses under his breath -- seemingly for David’s sake. He banged once on the table in anger. “... _ Goddamit _ , I told him not to check out your-”

“I met him over the phone,” David said quickly. “That’s what I meant.”

Max shook his head. “Jesus, David. Give me a heart attack, why don’t you. Fucker.”

“He seemed...nice. Why didn’t you want us to meet in person?” David asked, ignoring the insult. 

“Hm. Woah. Loaded question.” Max thought for a moment. “It’s...complicated. Plus, I would be kinda weird for him to just, like,  _ show up _ at your place unannounced especially since I gave you no warning.”

“Ah, yeah.” David’s mouth went into a tight line, but then he relaxed it before Max saw. “You never mentioned him to me before we had our phone call, either.”

Max’s eyes widened. “Oh. Shit. My bad.” He shrugged. “I mean, at least it was only an awkward phone call then.”

“Yeah.” David nodded and suppressed a sigh. “It wasn’t a problem.”

“Anyways!” Max banged on the table for emphasis. “You know Sam. Good. He’s gonna be my dad.”

David cocked his head to the side. “Uh….?”

“The cops won’t check to see if he’s my dad or not. They don’t care that much. Plus, he looks enough like me to pass as him. So, what we do -- with Plan B -- is just act like he’s my dad, and improvise the rest.” Max stared up at David. “You got that?”

“I think I can handle it.” David then shrugged. “Not my first time lying to a cop before.”

Max rolled his eyes and smirked in amusement. “You know, I don’t think saying you’re twelve when you’re actually thirteen but you still want to see the inside of their cruiser at the kid’s day fair counts, but whatever.”

“What?” David was taken aback for a moment, staring back at Max. He blinked. “Kudos for a creative analogy used to mock me! But...I used to be quite hardcore, Max.”

Max huffed. “Hardcore people don’t describe themselves as hardcore.”

“Well I never said I was hardcore nowadays, did I?” David quirked a smile. 

Max huffed again. “You’re so embarrassing.”

“That’s what hardcore becomes when it grows up.” He then reached out and booped Max’s nose, just for the hell of it. Max blinked back at him, then scowled. David grinned. “Now, c’mon, we should probably get back to the police station so we can meet Sam….”

They got up and threw their cups away in a nearby trashcan, David promising Max again that they would stop for a  _ small  _ cup of coffee again when everything was situated with the cops. David was somehow able to get Max to hold his hand for safety reasons when they crossed the street, to which he only begrudgingly agreed to do because “it’ll help continue the story of him being a fucking pussy-ass kid afraid of everything if any cops were watching through the windows”. 

Max’s words, not David’s. 

“Ready?” David asked, about to push the door open. 

“Wait!” Max paused for a second outside the door, then stared at the ground. A somber look crossed his face, as if he was upset over something, and then he promptly looked up and poked himself directly in the eyeballs a few times. He looked up at David with red and teary eyes. “Ready.”

David sighed in exasperation, then opened the door. Max hid behind his legs the whole time, like he had in the coffee shop, and David walked up to the front counter. The cop sitting there was an older guy, probably one that should have retired years ago but would’ve probably up and died if he had because the police station was his life. He smiled when David and Max approached. 

“Can I help you?” he asked kindly.

“Uh, yeah. We were told to come back here after half an hour?” David gave a nervous chuckle. “I mean, uh...I’m not sure how to describe it.”

The old man stared at them, puzzled for a moment, then his eyes lit up. “Oh! You’re the runaway case.” He stood then turned his head. “Larry! Your boys are back.”

The cop from earlier came out from the back room, then went around the counter. “Oh, hey fellas.” He approached David directly. “I just need you to come back and sign some papers, and then you’re free to go.”

Both Max and David paused. 

“What?” David asked. 

“Oh, yeah.” The cop pointed at Max. “His dad called. You’re an old family friend, right? Practically his uncle? He said you can take him home, since it’ll be a while before he actually gets here. We usually don’t do things like this but we’re making an exception. I called his dad while you two were out.”

“I...I’m confused,” David finally confessed after holding in the statement all day. 

“Well, it’s not like we punish kids for running away. Like, we will investigate as to  _ why  _ they did, but it seems as though your boy here just has a history of being a troublemaker.” He shook his head down at Max and David felt a rush of protectiveness flare in him when he saw Max frown in slight dismay at that. “We just need to know the kid is safe, and that they’re going home,” the cop continued. “And since you’re here, that’s practically done. I just need you to sign off on some stuff.”

“Ah...alright.” David glanced down awkwardly at Max. “Will you be okay out here?”

“I won’t run away again if that’s what you mean,” he snapped back. His demeanor had suddenly changed from his scared child persona. If anything, the way he was acting reminded David of his attitude on parents’ day at camp, when his parents “forgot” to show up. “Just do what you need to do so we can get out of here.”

The cop frowned at him in disapproval and David frowned in concern, but both let it be. The cop led him back into his office, had him sit down and shoved a small stack of papers at him. 

Most of them were simple enough to understand, though a few were a bit tougher. The cop explained each other them thoroughly though, and and told him where to scribble his signature. 

“Hey, uh, I’m not actually related to Max by blood, as you know,” David said at some point, after he had signed about seven documents. “He does...consider me an uncle, like you said earlier, I guess but I’m not exactly….”

He trailed off.

“Doesn’t really matter.” The cop shrugged. “We got his legal guardian’s permission, and since he’s not here right now you’re basically acting  _ loco parentis _ , I guess. I mean, it would be different if this was a medical situation but all you’re doing is bringing him home.”

He gave David another one of those unfitting smiled. David smiled back. 

“Oh -- uh, thanks.”

“No prob.” He shoved one last paper at him. “Just sign at the bottom.”

They finished up and went back through the censor-locked door. Max was in deep discussion with the old cop at the counter -- or, at least, it seemed as though the old cop was talking rather deeply to Max as it looked at though he was about to fall asleep.

“We’re back!” the younger cop called. 

Max jolted awake and the old cop stopped talking. He pursed his lips, looked around once, and then leaned in close to Max. “Just remember what I said, sonny.” He glanced over at David. “Be nice to your uncle.”

“Will do, sir,” Max mumbled. He saluted. 

“Uh…” David started, then cleared his throat. “Time to go, Max.”

Max blinked blearily at him and nodded. All anger from before seemed to be gone, replaced but a dulled out tiredness. He stood close to David for a moment, looking as though he was about to use his leg to prop himself up, then thought better of it.

The cop shook David’s hand, and then pressed something into it. It was a piece of paper. David looked at it when he let go, and saw it was a phone number. 

The cop gave him a wink and gave him one last smile.

David blushed and realized why it had been so unfitting for this situation. 

He and Max then headed to the door, David’s face still red and Max stumbling the whole way out. They paused at the bottom of the steps, Max looking up at David with pleading but stubborn eyes and David not seeing it because his mind was still reeling a bit. 

“Uh,” he finally said after a second. “I guess we’ll go back to my place.”

Max nodded tiredly. 

They walked a few feet, Max blinking hard to wake himself up. They reached a crosswalk and David insisted upon Max holding his hand again. This time, he didn’t put up any fight and David began to get concerned. 

Then they reached the sidewalk again, and Max still didn’t let go of his hand.

“Uh, you okay, Max?” he asked. Despite still being only about a hundred yards from the police station, he stopped them again and took a knee so that he was on eye level with Max. He felt his forehead. “You don’t seem right….”

Max yawned. “Tired.”

“Okay….” David stared at him a moment longer and then realized. “Oh! The coffee, it-”

“Don’t want it anymore,” Max mumbled. “Too sleepy.”

David thought for a moment, then gave a small laugh. “No, silly! I meant the coffee you drank earlier. You’re coming down from its high. That’s why you’re sleepy.”

Max frowned and crossed his arms “So...you weren’t gonna get us more coffee even though you promised?”

“I thought you didn’t want it.”

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your promise!” Max huffed, then yawned. “Asshole.”

David smiled, then straightened up. “Are you okay to walk?”

“Yeah, I-” Another yawn. Max rubbed at his eyes. “I guess.”

He then took a step then stumbled a bit. 

David looked around. “You’re not faking this, are you? I mean, there’s really no around except me.”

“Why would I fake  _ this _ ?” Max blinked slowly. “I feel like shit, David.”

“Great,” he said. “Well not great. It’s bad you feel like shit. But it’s good you’re not faking, because lying is wrong and also because it would make me feel like a big dummy for what I’m about to do next.”

“What are you gonna-”

Like earlier, David picked Max up in one foul swoop. This time, however, Max fought against his hold and kicked him in the gut a few times. David struggled not to drop him.

“Let me go, you freak!” he yelled. “I don’t want to be picked up! I can walk!”

“You’re falling asleep,” David countered. He was able to get a firm grip on Max, though it would help him a bit if Max stopped squirming. “I’ll put you down if you really want to, but it’s a long walk to my apartment and I doubt you want to stumble your whole way there.”

Max opened his mouth, then closed it. He glared at David. 

“You are the bane of my existence,” he said.

David bit back his comment of “ditto” and started walking. 

It was about two blocked before Max relaxed in his arms and actually leaned against him. It was then about a few more blocks before he reached up and wrapped his own arms around David’s neck, to assist with the whole ‘holding himself up’ thing so David wouldn’t have to support his back as much. 

By block five David was feeling guilty for even thinking his hurtful previous comment at Max, who was now cuddling up to him sweetly (though he would never say that for fear of getting yelled at or stabbed in his sleep). Max was asleep by block seven. 

They reached David’s apartment in a little under half an hour. By then, David’s arms were aching a bit -- but not too much, Max really  _ was  _ light -- and he struggled to get his keys out of his pocket, but he somehow managed without dropping this sleeping kid in his arms. It concerned him a bit when he found that his door had never been locked in the first place, but he reasoned that maybe he just forgot to lock in his rush-motivated-panic to get to the police station that afternoon. 

Or, at least, that’s what he thought until he pushed open the door and saw an uncomfortably familiar yet simultaneous unfamiliar face sitting on his couch. 

“Sup?” Sam said, looking up from his phone. 

It took all of David’s common sense to hold him back from not dropping Max in shock or to scream. Instead, his brain dumbly supplied him with, “Shhhh.”

Sam raised an eyebrow, and then spotted Max in his arms. A smile broke out across his face, and he hopped to his feet and rushed over to the two of them. “Awwww,” he mumbled. He reached out and brushed some hair out of Max’s face. “He’s so cute!”

“Yeah,” David whispered back. He shifted his hold. “And getting heavy.”

Sam nodded and stepped out of his way. David went to the nearest armchair and placed Max down in it. He didn’t have any blankets in his small living room, so instead he took off the jacket he was wearing and put it on top of it him. He then turned around to see Sam closing the door that he had left open. 

“Can’t have intruders,” he said, trademark grin in place. 

“Yeah,” David said. He was frowning. He made his way to the adjacent small kitchen. “Can I get you a drink?”

Sam raised an eyebrow and followed him. “Got any whiskey?”

“Scotch or Irish?” David shrugged and went to his top cabinet. “Ah -- wait. I think I drank all my Scotch.”

“Oh my god.” Sam gave a snort and tried to contain his laughter. “It was a joke. I don’t drink, but it's good to know you’re not all rainbows and kittens, apparently.

David allowed himself to smirk, but then wiped it off his face in favor of a more neutral expression. He leaned against his counter. “So….” he started. “What are you doing here?”

Sam’s eyes traveled over to Max. “Picking up my baby brother, evidently.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” David nodded as though he believed it, then crossed his arms. “Why weren’t you at the police station? Max said you would be there.”

“Change of plans,” he said. “This is Plan B."

“Plan C,” David corrected. He glanced over at Max too, who stirred a bit in his sleep. “Max and I already had a Plan B.”

“‘Max and I’ -- you say that so pretentiously.” Sam grinned and shook his head. “You’re wild, camp man. And kinda pissing me off.”

David shrugged again. “Not every day you get called down to a police station thinking you’re going to jail just for talking to some runaway kid that called  _ you  _ every night but then it turns out they think you’re his uncle.” He sniffed. “But, you know, I guess I’m always supposed to be happy and have the critical thinking skills of a third grader. I know what’s going on."

“Do you now?” Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “Tell me.”

“Well, it’s obviously not a coincidence Max ran away directly to the city I was living in, and turned himself in at the police station about a twenty five minute walk from my house.”

“Yeah?” Sam goaded. 

David huffed. “And it’s also not a coincidence that the police never mentioned foster parents, just ‘father’ this and ‘father’ that.”

Sam grinned. 

“And...it’s also not a coincidence that you happened to barge into my house a week ago, making sure the house was safe for some random ‘race car bed’.....”

“Seeing the full picture?”

David hesitated a moment, then sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“So, tell me what’s happening.” 

“I….” David wasn’t sure how to put it into words. Specifically words that would sound non-accusatory. “I...I just….”

He struggled.

Sam sighed. “You got most of it right. My brother….did run away with heading to your house specifically in mind. I’m not sure what he was exactly planning, but it sounded like this was just a temporary stop. Like you would kick him out after a few days.”

He paused and looked over at his sleeping brother. His face and voice softened. “He had this whole thing planned about doing chores and getting a job so he could pay you rent….he honestly thought you would let him move in with you for a while, but then not actually want him there unless he was useful….”

David nodded. 

“I...knew about the whole plan too. Lemme explain. My -- I mean  _ our  _ \-- parents got back custody of him, kinda. I mean, he’s been living under the same roof as them for the past three weeks or so. He only spent a week in foster care. Something about his case being inconclusive. It was a real rare situation.”

Sam sighed again, then continued. 

“But...he just couldn’t take it. I won’t go into details, but lemme just say that he probably wouldn’t have actually ran away if he had stayed in foster care with those hippies. He would’ve planned it, but not actually gone through with it. Kinda like how he did at camp, or so he’s told me.”

He quirked a genuinely smile at that, and David couldn’t help but grin back too, thinking of all the times Max had tried to escape, with had resulted in several traffic tickets for David and also him getting hit by the bus a few times….

Suddenly he didn’t feel like smiling anymore. 

Sam took no notice, and continued. 

“Anyways, he decided to run away. Like, actually run away. To you. I don’t know why, and I frankly found it kinda creepy at first but then we sat down and actually talked -- which is a thing I didn’t know the kids did anymore -- and he said -- he said that you were the only person in this world that didn’t hate him or what to see him dead.”

Sam laughed a bit bitterly at that, and David understood why. 

“And I just….I dunno. I gave him the money to run away. I bought him a bus ticket. And then I followed that bus by car, always staying just out of sight. I’m shocked he never noticed me there. And then he reached the city, and instead of going straight to your house he apparently got cold feet and went to the police station. I thought it would be over then.”

He took a breath, then looked up at David. He looked pained. 

“But...instead, he told them all about you. I think that he just wanted to clear your name just in case our parents blamed you for kidnapping him or encouraging him to run away. But the cops took it all wrong and basically thought he was listing you as his emergency contact. So they called me, and then they called you. I said I was several states away so you would pick him up.”

“Why?” David said, finally speaking for the first time in a while. 

“So you would break his heart.” Sam shrugged. “I mean...I thought he would bring up the whole ‘staying with you thing’. Or that you would ask why he ran away  _ to you _ . And that you would tell him no, you can’t take him in. And then I would be there to take him home. This whole thing was just...pointless. Well, no, I guess it’s teaching him a lesson. But it was a waste of time. Both ours and yours.”

David stared at Sam. 

“I checked out your house and gave you the money last week just incase you decided to let him stay for, like, a few days or in case the cops gave you too much trouble over all this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. A step up from the previous plastic bag. “I have money to make up for this time too. Don’t worry, our family is kinda rich. This is how we settle things.”

David just stared at him some more, trying to process it all. 

Silence hung in the air. 

“Why -” he started, “-why did Max run away?”

Sam blinked, then frowned. “He...forgot to do the dishes.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“I...I think there’s more to that than what you’re telling me,” David said firmly. He looked over at Max one more time. “But, I don’t think Max would try to run away for no reason. Is it safe for him to go back to your house?”

Sam said nothing. 

“Is it safe?” he repeated, more firmly.

“...No,” Sam said after a moment.

“Alright,” David said. He paused. “I guess it  _ is  _ settled then.”

It was Sam’s turn to stare at him. “What are you talking about?”

David stared Sam down. “He’s staying with me.”

“Careful there.” Sam narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean, camp man?”

“I mean,” David said, pushing himself off the counter and walking a few steps closer to Sam. He got so close he could smell the stench of cigarettes coming off of him. “Max is staying  _ with me _ .”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took me
> 
> three fucking tries to upload
> 
> i originally had some long ass meta note about how this fic is unofficially in three parts and how the first part is now over but now im just pissed at this website and my laptop lmfao 
> 
> anyways, despite how pissed off i am, i love every single one of you all and i gotta say this feedback has been amazing. like, i honestly dont know how to respond to half of it without screaming "NNNGHGHGHG I LOVE YOU????" so really thank you.
> 
> in other news, shoutout to my friend anna (whos blog i will edit in here when im not so pissed at this website) for beta reading! i would die for you anna. also @ all y'all, hmu on tumblr and scream at me to update faster instead of reblogging memes @writterings if u want. 
> 
> anyways, thanks again. im dead. im pissed. its 4 am. i love writing this but sometimes its a struggle. night night.


	7. Chapter 7

David had honestly tried to cook a good breakfast for Max, but the keyword there was  _ tried.  _ The pancakes had started out okay, with the batter being the right consistency and the chocolate chips being the unhealthy amount that all kids loved -- but when it came to the actual baking of them, that’s where the trouble began….

Let’s just say David was frankly surprised Max had slept through the smoke alarm blaring. 

Instead of trying to salvage his mostly burnt, partially doughy mess of a batter, David just chucked it all and left the dishes in the sink. Frustration and annoyance at himself bubbled in his gut, but he pushed them down promptly and put on a happy face. 

It was always better to feel happy than sad. 

Besides, he kinda needed to have a positive outlook for the task he was about to do. It was a dangerous one, one he had only done twice before, one of those times being the day he thought he would never see Max again. It was somewhat ironic, considering the conditions he was doing this “task” under now….

He needed to wake Max up. 

“Uh, hey, Max?” he said softly, entering his own bedroom where he had laid the kid out the night before. He was sprawled across the bed, face down on the mattress. “Hey -- time to wake up.”

He didn’t dare try to touch him. He was honestly surprised he hadn’t lost a limb the last time he’d done this.

Luckily, the universe seemed to be working in David’s favor that day. Without him having to say another word, Max slowly lifted his head, turned to face David, and  _ glared  _ bloody murder at him. 

David smiled in relief.  _ Success!  _

“Well, good morning, sleepy head!” he said over enthusiastically, but graciously not yelling every word. He had since learned that loud voices were not appreciated early in the morning -- specifically his loud voice not being appreciated by specifically Max. “I kinda botched breakfast by accident -- so what’s say you and me go to a diner or something, hm?”

Max sat up in bed, and then swung his legs around the side. His glare had faded and he was staring at David with a kind of shocked look on his face -- as if he was still half asleep, and wasn’t sure if he was dreaming what he was seeing. 

“Now, let’s see, there’s one down the street, one a few blocks down -- there’s a cafe also down the street. Ah, the joys of living in the city! So many places to choose from.” David then gave a happy laugh. “But I still do wish we were back at Camp Campbell! Nothing beats that fresh mountain air.”

“David,” Max said quietly.

“Though I do think it would be harder to find breakfast out there, right? I mean I’m no cook, but I usually can make some decent things! Just today it was a bit hard.” He shook his head good-naturedly. “We would’ve been stuck eating burnt pancakes if were had been at camp, then! What a disaster!”

“David,” Max repeated, more urgently. 

“Though I do suppose we could open up a cooking camp and have that camper cook for us as a camp activity….but then they might not know how, if they’re at cooking camp! Do you think Gwen knows how to cook? We would have to make brochures for it and everything but-”

“David!” Max finally snapped.

David couldn’t help it, but he flinched. Max frowned when he did, but didn’t say anything for a second. David slowly tried to force out another smile. 

“What is it, Max?”

“What….what happened to your face?” he finally asked, pointing to his own eye. “You look like you’ve been punched.”

David’s hand came up and he touched his own face, fingertips ghosting over the area were his cheek met his eye socket. “Oh, this? I just tripped sometime last night and landed in an awkward way. Kinda funny how it happened, really….”

Max wouldn’t stop frowning. He pushed himself up until he was standing on the bed and was now at David’s height, and beckoned him closer. “Can...can I see?”

David took a step forward and let Max grab his face. He poked his black eye once, to which David responded with a comedic “oh, owie!” and Max ignored that. He tugged on the skin, stretching it out a bit then, and then let it go back to it’s original puffy-state. 

David tried to pull away. “So, about breakfast-”

Max shook his head to show he wasn’t done. He continued inspecting David’s eye with a serious, almost troubled look on his face. He then made a fist. 

It made contact with David’s cheek, but with a much softer touch that either of them probably expected. Max had placed his fist on David’s face. When he lifted it up, the bruises aligned perfectly with his knuckles. 

He put his hand down. “You  _ were  _ punched.”

“Well, that’s one what of putting it!” David tried laughing it off. “But let’s not focus on the negatives here.”

“What the  _ fuck _ happened after I passed out?” Max’s eyes slide over to the window, where sunlight was streaming through. “And how  _ long  _ was I out?” And then he looked at the room around him. “And where the fuck am I?”

“Uh, well,” David started. “Which part do you want to know first?”

Max thought for a moment, then looked around. “Where am I?”

David smiled; that was the simplest to answer. “Oh! You’re in my room, silly. Remember we went back to my apartment last night?”

Max frowned. “Uh….no?” His frowned deepened. “Why was I asleep in your room?”

David shrugged. “You obviously weren’t waking up anytime soon so I put you in bed.”

“I didn’t end up taking your bed, did I?” Max seemed oddly concerned about this for some reason. 

“I slept on the couch,” was all David responded with. He could feel the tension rise in the room, and he didn’t quite know why. The look on Max’s face wasn’t reassuring either. “So,” he tried, “you want to know how long you were out?”

“Uh...yeah.” Max swallowed and shook his head. He forced on his usual interested scowl. “What, did I sleep all night?”

“Yeppers! You were  _ so  _ tuckered out after all that coffee and that fake-crying.”

Ma snorted. “Well, that hasn’t happened in a while. Good for me.”

“What do you mean?” David frowned. “You haven’t been sleeping?”

“Geez, what are you, my mom?” Max huffed and rolled his eyes. He sat down on the bed, and then flopped back on it. “But, I mean….yeah. I haven’t been. But it’s no big deal, Jesus, David.”

David put his hands up in truce. “Wasn’t trying to make a big deal out of it, just wondering!” He then frowned again. “Though….if you do want to sleep a bit more then….”

Max sat up. “Ugh, stop it. I’m up, I’m up! Let’s just get some breakfast.”

David laughed. “Sounds like a plan to me! You wanna go to that diner then? It’s not too far away and it’s pretty good!”

“Uh, yeah sure. Just one more question first.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” David sat down on the bed next to him, sitting on one of his legs and letting the other dangle off the edge of the bed. “What’s up?”

“Well, I kinda asked this already….but what the actual fuck happened after I passed out?” Max pointed to David’s eye, but didn’t look up at him. “Also, uh, did Sam stop by?”

David winced, but only because he was sure Max wouldn’t see. “Uh...yeah, your brother stopped by. He couldn’t stay long. But he told me-”

“What did he tell you?” Max interrupted, urgently. 

“....He told me your current home situation wasn’t working out that well and that you wanted to strike it out on your own. I mean, you’re ten years old, you’re practically an adult, right?"

David sincerely hoped what he was saying didn’t sound as sarcastic as he usually would have said it. It was obvious he was giving Max a bunch of placating bullshit -- he just hoped Max wouldn’t realize it. What was that thing about not bullshitting a bullshitter?

Max looked surprised. “Uh...yeah. I mean, I’m still a kid. But I’m fucking mature. I can handle living on my own.” 

“Exactly!” David internally cringed. “So, Sam came here from where ever you used to live because the police called him. He thought you were in trouble, you see. But apparently you weren’t and once he saw how you were okay hanging out here, he left.” 

David kinda hated himself for telling Max all this. He just didn’t want him to think ill of his brother -- even if his brother was a bit of a jackass. 

“Oh.” Max frowned. “He...he couldn’t even stay to say hi? Why didn’t someone wake me up?”

His expression twisted into one of hurt. 

“Oh, we tried!” David said, digging himself deeper into the lie. “You just wouldn’t wake up. And he also had work tomorrow. He said he might stop by sometime later this week if you want to see him. Do you have his phone number?”

Max blinked. “Uh...yeah. Are you saying I should call him or something?”

“Only if you want.” David shrugged. “Oh, hey, uh -- he also told me you wanted to crash here for a few days.”

Max looked panicked for a moment. “Yeah, about that-”

“I’m completely fine it,” David quickly said. “Stay as long as you need.” 

“I’ll do chores and shit,” Max affirmed, with obvious relief. “I’ll pay you back for everything. It’s just a few days tops, then I’ll be out of your hair.”

“Where will you go afterwards?”

Max shrugged. “No clue.”

David forced himself to smile. “Then, really, stay here as long as you want.”

“We’ll see, weirdo.” Max shrugged, but then his face took on a more confused look. “But, like….Sam really said I was old enough to hike it out on my own? And you agree with him?"

“I mean, whatever you think is the best for yourself.”

Max raised his eyebrows, but smiled. “Sweet. Thanks for being cool about this, man. Like, still totally hate you.”

“Totally,” David said, nodding. 

“But...thanks.”

“No problem.” And for the first time that day, David felt himself genuinely smile. “Now, how about those pancakes? The diner I was thinking of even has chocolate chip ones.”

“God, those are my  _ favorite _ .” Max stretched, trying to wake himself up a bit more. “Just add some coffee and that’ll be fuckin’ heaven.”

“I can guarantee they have coffee.” David reached out and booped him on the nose. “Just the way you like it too.”

Max scrunched his nose in displeasure and then stuck out his tongue, amused but luckily not ticked off. “Great. Now, lemme just check….”

He started reaching in his pockets. David hadn’t undressed him last night (because that would’ve been...really not right, in any context) so he still had on his street clothes. He pulled out the crinkled up twenty he had from the day before. 

“Okay, I think I’m good -- but this place better be cheap.” Max shoved his dollar back in his pocket. “Ready when you are, I guess, or whatever the fuck I’m supposed to say to get us out of here faster so I can inhale some fuckin’ pancakes.”

David laughed. “Alright, Max. It is is cheap, just so you know.” He hopped off the bed, and went over to his dresser to pull out some clothes. He considered them for a moment, then dug around in his drawer for something else. He pulled out a another, smaller T-shirt. “But I’m paying.”

Max shook his head. “No, you’re not.”

“I guess we’ll just settle that when we get there.” David placed the T-shirt on the bed next to Max, and went over to the door. “Let me just get changed. You didn’t have a bag with you at the police station, right?”

“Oh, shit….” Max muttered. 

“It’s fine, we can stop there later today and pick it up.” David leaned on the doorframe and nodded towards the T-shirt he had just placed on the bed next to Max. “Just borrow that one for now. Sorry I don’t have any pants or underwear in your size. Or socks!”

Max shook his head, seeming embarrassed. He picked up the shirt. “It’s fine….”

“Great, see you in five.” David finger-gunned and turned, ready to go change in the bathroom. 

“David?” Max asked.

He turned. “Yeah?”

“Uh….” He was clutching the shirt to his chest. “What...what  _ did  _ happen to your eye, by the way? Not that I care about you or anything.”

David smiled. “Nothing you need to be worried about.”

“Did Sam-”

“It’s nothing.”

Max frowned. “He...he didn’t actually say I was old enough to leave home, did he?”

“That’s….” David inhaled sharply. “We had a conversation. In the end, he agreed that if you wanted to leave home and stay here, you could. So, yes, he did actually say that.”

“He didn’t.” Max frowned. “David, did he-”

“He just needed some convincing.” David couldn’t bring himself to smile, but his voice came out cheerful. “Don’t be mad. We talked it out. Your brother...is a really good guy!”

“I…” Max looked down. He hugged the shirt tighter to himself and played with the drawstrings on his hoodie. “I guess.”

“Great!” David turned again. “Now, let’s get ready. I know a waitress at the diner. If we’re lucky and she’s still on her shift, I’m pretty sure she’ll slip you an extra pancake if you want!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wubba lubba dub dub. hey, hi. im pressed for time atm but hey here's the chapter. 
> 
> i haven't responded to everyone's comments on the last chapter yet and for that i apologize -- but there was nearly 100 and i go to school full time and then go to work until 10 pm. and also i teach sunday school. and i'm also on my local rescue squad. and i'm in the school play. haha...(help). but i will respond to all the comments soon! i have off friday by some miracle.
> 
> ANYWAYS, i do appreciate every single comment you all leave here and i love you all. you are all so kind and nice, and i am so SO happy you guys enjoy my writing and this story. 
> 
> anyways...i originally had planned putting in max and david's pancake breakfast in here, but the scene didn't work so i took it out. but here it is on my tumblr because i thought it was funny: [X](http://writterings.tumblr.com/post/165272673200/this-is-kindabonus-content-for-my-dadvid-fic-loco)
> 
> anyways, gotta go! love you all. <33


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whAT UP i couldve updated this earlier today but i was busy eating an entire pizza by myself and doing vodka shots and watching orange is the new black (aka this has been my first day off in a while and i fully enjoyed it)

All in all, David had a pretty low key Sunday. He and Max got those pancakes, as promised, and then swung by the police station to grab Max’s forgotten bag (with the cop who gave David his number thankfully not being there). They then also grabbed coffee at that little cafe across from the station again, and Max insisted upon ordering and paying -- to the point where he refused to let David even in the building. 

David had simply contained an eyeroll and shoved some money in the kid’s hand before he went in -- Max’s request was somewhat strange, but it didn’t harm anything, so David let him do what he wanted. When he came out though, he had a mischievous look on his face that David didn’t trust but also didn’t question. It probably shouldn’t have surprised him that his hot chocolate tasted a bit funny. 

But, still, it was a pretty low key day. Nothing stressful, and it was kinda nice just to walk around the city and hang out with Max. It felt like they were almost back at camp with the way they were bantering, but also not; something had changed between them -- for the better.

So, really, it was a great day. A perfect day. 

So then why the actual  _ fuck  _ did David have a splitting headache?

“Ugh,” he let slip out of his mouth the moment he and Max set foot back in his apartment. He kicked off his shoes, took off his jacket (which he really hadn’t needed since the day turned out to be warm), and immediately went to the kitchen to grab an Advil. 

He didn’t notice how Max just stood there, watching all this and shuffling awkward in the doorway. 

David got himself a glass of water, popped his pill, and then downed both in a gulp. Of course, he didn’t feel better straight away -- the momentary placebo effect people sometimes got before their meds kicked in stopped working on him ever since he got bored and read the back of a Xanax bottle one day. He turned to lean on the counter and put his head in one hand, rubbing his temple.

Max still did not move from his place in the doorway. 

David straightened up after a minute and looked over at him. “Are you okay, Max?”

“Uh, yeah….” Max gulped. “I….”

David stared at him. He realized that he had never gotten the chance to formally invited Max into his house.

“Oh! Uh-” David quickly forced out one of his signature cheerful grins, hoping it would be comforting. “You can come in, of course! Just be a champ and close the door behind you, please? I would greatly appreciate that.”

Max’s shoulders relaxed a bit and he managed an eyeroll. He also tried to contain a grin. “Whatever.”

He closed the door and then kicked off his shoes in a similar manner as David had before. And while he was not wearing a jacket but rather an oversized hoodie lent to him by David. it looked as though he was considering taking it off for a second just so he could throw it on the couch next like David had before. 

David realized Max was copying him. 

Max thought better of taking off his hoodie and instead just joined David in the kitchen, which was adjacent to the living room/entry way. 

“You hungry or anything?” David asked. He let his overly cheerful, Camp Counselor Man persona drop a bit, but hopefully not enough to make Max uncomfortable again. he turned and opened a cabinet, which only held cleaning supplies. “We have...Pine Sol?”

He pulled out a yellow spray canister.

Max snorted. “You know, if it was made out of actual trees, I wouldn’t be surprised if you actually tried to eat it.”

David laughed and uncapped it. “Well...don’t knock it til you try it.”

He held his tongue out to the spray-nozzle, as if about to lick it. Max recoiled but giggled at the same time. He then tried to sober up his demeanor, as if he was the one who needed to be the adult in the room. 

“That’ll kill you if you eat it, David,” he huffed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He rolled his eyes. “Licking it might just cause you to lose a few brain cells though. But I really think you can’t afford to lose anymore of those”

David suppressed his own eyeroll but grinned. He touched his tongue to the spray-nozzle. He wiggled it around a bit, tasting the bitter chemical. He then started coughing, and removed his tongue -- and then turned and spat in the sink. He tried to make this as big of a spectacle as he could, too. 

Meanwhile, Max was very obviously trying not to laugh, as if he was above all this bullshit tomfoolery. David could see it. He even watched Max crack once or twice so very obviously wanting to laugh….

“Don’t say I didn’t warn ya,” Max huffed again, crossing his arms and frowning in disapproval. “David, I swear to god if you die-”

He was cut off by David suddenly gripping his head, dropping the Pine Sol on the floor with a ‘clang!’

“David?”

David grimaced and looked up. “Sorry.”

“Oh my god, I was just joking about the brain cells and dying thing.” Max looked scared. “Should -- should I call 911 or something?”

Despite the splitting pain in his head, David couldn’t help but let out an amused huff at that. “I’ll be fine, Max.”

“But you just ate Pine Sol-”

“This is unrelated to that.”

Max squinted at him, and that squint gradually turned into a glare. “You’re...you’re not shitting me, are you? I fucking swear if this is some dumbass ploy to get me to show that I care about you-”

“I just have a headache, Max. And I just got a surge of pain.” David frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Max pressed his lips into a tight line, and let out a small “Oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Uh...nothing.” Max let out a nervous laugh. “My mom, uh, used to get headaches a lot. You wanna go lie down or something? I’ll find something quiet to do so I don’t bother you.”

David shrugged. “I’ll be fine, I think the Advil I took is starting to kick in anyways,” he said unconvincingly, still gripping his head. He leaned down and picked up the Pine Sol. After putting it away, he opened up another cabinet which had actual food. “Besides, you never answered my question. I know we ate a few hours ago but I can make you a snack or something if-”

“You should lie down.” Max was frowning. He didn’t seem as apprehensive as before, but rather confused. “Like, really, you’ll feel better. And no offense but I’d really rather not get yelled at for something like breathing too loud or whatever.”

David frowned and closed the cabinet, turning slowly to look at Max. “What?”

He shrugged. “People with headaches...are more irritable. Or at least my mom is. Listen, David, you’ll feel a lot better if you just go lie down.”

“I -- I’m not going to yell at you,” David blurting out, a little bewildered. 

“Sure, okay.” Max shrugged again and then started eyeing the dishes David had left in the sink from his failed pancakes earlier that day. “But seriously. Go lie down. I’ll start on these dishes. You really shouldn’t let them pile up.”

“Why do I get the feeling that you’re kicking me out?” David followed Max’s gaze to look at the sink. “So you can do  _ dishes _ , no less.”

“Because I might be.” Max walked up to the sink, measuring himself against it, and then looked up at David. “You mind if I stand on a chair while doing them? Just so I can reach.”

“You don’t have to do the dishes.”

“But I wanna.”

“Why?”

“So you won’t yell at me?”

“I’m not going to yell at you.”

“But you have a headache. You’ll still yell at me later when the pain gets worse. Go lie down.”

“I won’t yell at you.”

“But you could.”

“Why would I yell at you?”

“For not doing the dishes.”

“I just told you that you don’t have to do the dishes.”

“But I wanna.”

“Why?”

“So you won’t yell at me.”

“ _ I’m not going to yell at _ -” David stopped himself before he could continue, noticing how his voice was rising as he was saying that sentence. He covered his mouth with his hands and stared down at horror in Max. His head throbbed. “I-”

Max smirked up at him. “You weren’t going to yell at me?”

“Oh, _can it_ , smarty pants,” David grumbled -- teasingly of course. He wasn’t actually mad at the kid, of course. “So...just to make this clear, you basically just want me to leave you alone?”

“Yeah.”

“So you can do the dishes?”

“Yeah.”

“So I won’t yell at you, despite how I’ve never asked you to do the dishes, and how I’ve taken something that’ll help me with my head, and how I’ve told you I won’t yell at you.”

“Yeah.”

“Fine,” David sighed. “You win. I guess….I’ll be in the bedroom then? If you need anything, just come and poke me. And I mean it -- if you’re hungry, if there’s a stranger at the door, if you’re just lonely, come and bug me.”

“Okay, David,” Max said absentmindedly, starting to rinse off a spatula. He looked up. “Go lie down, you obtuse bastard.”

David felt himself smile at that. “Creative.”

“I try.” Max grinned down at the dishes. “Now get out of my face.”

David rolled his eyes, smiling, and then made his way over to the hall. His bedroom was the first door on the left. Just as he was about to go in, he heard Max call out to him. 

“Hey, David?” he said. 

“Yes, Max?”

Max smiled. “Fuck you.”

David smiled back. “Fuck you too.”

They held eye contact for all of three seconds, and then David turned to go into his room.

 

* * *

 

David woke up a few hours later with his headache having lessened but a new crick in his neck now causing him pain. He sat up in bed and stretched, hearing the TV on in the other room. It sounded like some kid’s show -- all the voices cartoony and a lot of the dialogue being yelled. It made him smile.

It was dark outside his room, so he figured it must’ve been dinner time. A pizza and movie sounded like heaven to David, despite how he really needed to cut back on eating out (especially with his new house guest staying with him). But tonight was the first night Max and him were technically staying together (under more permanent conditions); they needed to celebrate.

Humming a little to himself, David got up to go into the other room. Maybe instead of renting a movie or seeing what was on TV, he could take Max out to the late night showing of that new kid’s film. He had wanted to see it himself but a grown man all alone walking into a cartoon movie was always somewhat unnerving  for other audience members-- but now he had the perfect excuse to go; an actual kid. 

“Hey-” he started, softly as to not scare Max as he came into the living room. “Are you-”

There was a loud “thud” and suddenly the TV flicked off. David looked up to see Max scrambling to his feet next to the couch as he desperately tried to hide the fact that he had just been holding the remote. 

David stared at him. “Are you okay?”

“Just dandy,” Max said, catching his breath and looking absolutely terrified though his voice smoothly hid that. “How ‘bout you?”

“Uh...my headache is gone.” David looked around and saw all the lights were off, making the room all dark due to how the sun had set outside. “Have you just been sitting in the dark?”

“I like the dark,” Max said. “You know, in literature, people always have darkness represent bad things and light represent good things. I probably don’t even have to explain to you why that’s problematic though -- unless I do, because you’re an idiot. Anyways, seeing dark as bad is shitty because-”

David put his hands up in truce before Max launched in what was most likely a passionate literary commentary about inverting symbolism as to make it more politically correct. “I get what you mean. I roomed with Gwen at camp, and she’s a millennial liberal arts major.” He gave a small laugh. “Trust me, I’ve had a similar conversation before.”

Max raised an eyebrow, which David was surprised he could see despite the darkness. “Oh? Really? Then what’s your opinion on what I was just about to say?”

David shrugged. “I agree with you. Plus it just makes sense. When I think of dark lighting I think of Camp Campbell at night when it’s all peaceful….when I think of white lighting I think of scary hospital rooms.”

Max rolled his eyes. David could see that due to how they glowed slightly with the mostly dark ambiance and the vague lighting coming from the curtained window.

“Now, you’re just shitting me,” Max said, shaking his head. “C’mon, David. Don’t feed me platitudes. Just admit you don’t know what I was talking about and you just rephrased what I said to sound smart.”

David didn’t follow the logic, but shook his head in amusement. “Whatever you say,” he said, walking over to the wall. “Though, despite how riveting it has been to discuss the social dynamics of using dark vs light in writing…..” He flicked on the lights. “...will you now answer my question on why you were sitting in the dark?”

Max shrugged. He seemed more relaxed than before, more like himself and less like the timid little kid he had genuinely been displaying when David walked in the room. David had the urge to by one of those “I LOVE MY ASSHOLE SON” bump stickers when he saw Max return to his usual state like this, despite how Max wasn’t his son, and he wasn’t exactly sure if he “loved” the kid  considering...well, everything. And he was also reluctant to call a kid an asshole in the first place.

“...Nah,” Max finally said. He hesitated a moment, and then hopped on the couch. His expression screamed rebellion despite how David had never forbade from sitting down. He looked victorious. “I don’t wanna tell you, to be honest.”

David shrugged back. “Alright.” He walked into the adjacent kitchen, and got himself a glass of water. “So, in other news, would you like dinner?”

Max stared back him, bewildered for a moment, as if he had expected David not to respect his wishes. He started for a moment more, hopped off the couch, and then grinned a little bit. But then he policed his expression back into it’s usual scowl and crossed his arms. 

“Uh...it’s whatever,” he said. “I don’t really care….”

Clichedly enough, Max’s stomach decided to growl exactly at that moment. 

David grinned. “So….how does some junk food and a movie sound then?” He then saw Ma start reaching into his pockets for money and then quickly added, “My treat.”

Max raised his eyebrows. “Pizza? A movie? Damn, this must be what getting spoiled feels like.”

David laughed but felt a little weird about doing so. Nothing was funny. Max hadn’t made a joke. But it was either laugh or stare awkwardly.

Max didn’t seem to notice, and continued. “...and that also means less dishes to do next time for me.”

“What do you-” David’s eyes slid over to the sink. “Oh, goodness!”

It was spotless. All the dishes had been (assumedly) washed and put away, and the counter around the sink had been wiped down. In fact, the  _ entire  _ counter had been wiped. As had all the outsides of all the cabinets and drawers, and the refrigerator…..and were his socks just fuzzy, or did it feel as though Max had swept and mopped the floor as well?

“You cleaned,” he said simply. 

Max actually looked proud of himself, but tried to play it nonchalant. “I did.”

“Thank you.” David blinked twice, then moved back into the living room with Max. He went down on one knee, on eye level with Max. “Hey,  _ thank you _ .”

He reached out to give him a hug. 

“Ugh, gross, don’t touch me, camp man!” 

David put down his arms and gave Max some space. He couldn’t help but grin, however, and feel a small rush of pride. Sure, he kinda wished Max hadn’t cleaned the kitchen since he was technically a guest  _ and  _ a kid his age shouldn’t be touching some of those cleaning chemicals -- but he had done such a good job. 

“Whatever you say,” David finally said, rolling his eyes good naturedly and still smiling. He got back up on his feet, and then fumbled around in his pocket, pulling out his phone. “Anyways, what movie would you like to see? It’s kinda late now but….I think you’ve earned the chance to stay up late since --  Max?”

Max wasn’t looking up at him, but rather frowning at the ground. 

“Uh….” Max’s eyes flickered up at David for a second. “Actually, I changed my mind.”

“What?”

“Well-” Max took a step forward and then quickly hugged David’s legs, being too short to actually hug him. It was over within less than five seconds. Max staggered backwards after. “Yeah. Changed my mind.”

“Awwww,” David said, putting a hand over his heart.

“I’ll kill you if you tell anyone about this, blah, blah, blah….you know the drill.” Max rolled his eyes but then slowly frowned at the ground again. His fingers went to his hoodie’s drawstrings. “That -- that was okay with you, right?”

“Is what okay with me?”

“That I changed my mind?”

David smiled. “Of course it is.”

“Great,” Max huffed, try to look as though it was not great but failing. “Now...a movie?”

David showed him his phone screen. “I got the website up right now. Just scroll through and see what you’re interested in.” He handed Max his phone then frowned. “Nothing above a PG-13 rating though."

Max raised an eyebrow. “PG-13? Now we’re talking.” The phone was too big for his hands, so he ended up holding it with one hand and scrolling with the other. “Isn’t that illegal though?”

“What, you seeing a PG-13 movie?”

“Yeah.”

“No?”

“Oh.” Max turned the screen back to David. “In that case, can we see -- ?”

David took the phone from him, and saw the title he had selected. It was rating PG-13, had the Marvel logo slapped on it, and Chris Pratt was on the cover wearing a red leather jacket while pointing a futuristic-looking gun. 

He looked up from his phone. “ _ Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2,  _ huh?” He saw Max looked nervous, doing that thing with the drawstrings of his hoodie again. He guessed they weren’t seeing that kids’ movie then. He smiled. “Sounds great to me.”

And, for the first time in what seemed a long time, Max genuinely smiled up at David.

 

* * *

 

“He may have been your father,” David said to Max later that night. “ _ But he wasn’t your daddy _ .”

Max groaned and shoved his pillow over his head. “I swear to god, if you say that one more time-”

“It’s just so sad though!” David sniffed, trying to keep back the tears. “He raised Star-lord! Ego may have been his biological father but Yondu was Star-lord’s real daddy!”

“I get it, I get -- just stop saying ‘daddy’.” Max huffed and sat up on the couch, where he had been lying down. “It was different when Yondu said it. He had that southern accent, he could make it work."

They had just come back from _Guardians of the Galaxy 2_. Despite not seeing the first, or reading the apparent books, David was able to pick up on the plot quite quick and was soon sobbing over how the main character struggled with his sense of family. In the end, it all boiled down to whether Star-Lord would stay on the side of his chosen family and his adopted, space-pirate father Yondu, or go down the path of evil with his biological father Ego.

“Yeah, okay, but how did he have a southern accent if he was an alien?” David yawned, and then propped himself to look at Max. He was lying on the floor. They were both in the living room. “I mean….is that something we’re just not supposed to question?”

“Lots of planets probably have a south, David,” Max grumbled. He laid back down and plopped his head face forward back into his pillow. “Now, shut up! I’m tired. Not all of us passed out sometime in the afternoon due to a caffeine high and thus aren’t tired.”

“ _ I _ didn’t pass out from a caffeine high, silly. I just had a headache. That was you who crashed via coffee yesterday.” David stuck his tongue out at Max.  “But okay, we can go to sleep if you’re tired.”

David lied back on the floor and closed his eyes. He and Max hadn’t been able to figure out a situation with the bed -- David wanted Max to sleep in it, whereas Max admitted he felt weird about taking his host’s bed. In the the end, the solution was clear -- make a fort out of the couch cushions and sleep in the living room. 

Or, at least, they had tried that. Max apparently had never made a fort before. And, it  _ was  _ around 1 AM when they stumbled in the apartment after a long night of movie watching and cheap Chinese food. They more or less just talked about making a fort and then collapsed where they had been sitting after grabbing some blankets and pillows. 

“Well, uh, actually….no, that’s wrong.” Max lifted his head up and glanced down at David. “I...uh, spiked your hot chocolate this morning. I asked the barista to give it a shot of expresso. I figured since it calms me down and helps me to focus, it would make you less  _ annoying  _ excitable and, uh….”

Max sucked in a breath and looked away from David. He couldn’t even see his face in the dark, but he felt as though if he was looking at he would still be able to feel the disappointment radiating from his eyes. 

“I -- I shouldn’t have done that,” he mumbled. “It...was not nice. And it hurt you, kinda. I’m...sorry, David. That was shitty of me to do.”

Max cringed and waited. 

And then he heard a small snore. 

Max flipped around and glared down at David’s apparently sleeping form. “Oh, come on. No one falls asleep that fast. This is bullshit, David.”

David didn’t respond. 

Max huffed. “God….asshole. Falling asleep while I’m here confessing my sins. I could say anything right now and you wouldn’t know.”

David, of course, said nothing.

“My first crush was weirdly enough Neil, but towards the end of summer I kinda liked Preston,” Max said, testing the waters. He waited a second, then whispered another secret. “I also thought Nerris was kinda cute.”

He waited. No reply. 

“I once wrote a self-insert fanfiction of Me/Dipper Pines,” he continued, sounding as though he couldn’t believe he was saying these things out loud. “I once caught a frog and named it ‘Cutemit’ like ‘Kermit’ but with ‘cute’ in it.”

He took a deep breath, as preparing to confess something truly dark.

“My first email address was XXXmy_inner_demonsXXX@gmail.com!”

David said nothing. 

Max sighed and glanced down at him again, then quickly looked away. He stared up at the ceiling in silence for a moment. “ _ Guardians of the Galaxy _ ….” he started “....was never a book.”

He took a deep breath. “They’re just movies. And comic books. But I’ve only seen the movies. That book report you were so proud of me for doing....was a lie. I never read any dumb book before because I’m just too  _ dumb  _ to focus on anything.”

Max took a shaky breath. “You...really better be asleep, you asshole.” He put his head down on his pillow. “I...I don’t want you to know most of this shit. Especially…especially that last part.” Max rolled over, turning his back to David. “You were the first person to ever tell me you were proud of me, you know that? And it was because I lied. I don’t deserve you being proud of me.”

He glanced over his shoulder. He couldn’t see David lying on the ground due to his elevated position on the couch. 

“And it’s just because...fuck you, David. Fuck you. That’s all I gotta say.”

Max fully turned his back on David again. It was a few minutes before his breathing evened out, and a few minutes more before David decided it was safe to crack open an eye and look up at Max with a look that could be described as compassion with a side of a strange parental stirring in his chest. 

“Fuck you too,” David whispered, staring up at the ceiling while his heart broke for the kid on the couch next to him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i....hate doing chapters in separate parts like this but like. w/e.
> 
> also -- to clarify, max having executive dsyfunction/the inability to focus does not make him "d*mb", that's just his own insecurities coming out.
> 
> so i know not a lot happened in this chapter (other than just a lil fun stuff) but lemme just say...this is a turning point. are y'all ready for a good 10-12 chapters of just dadvid goodness????? ARE YA???? because i am. it's all just pure dadvid shenanigans and character development and a lil angst for now on.....until the bigger plot that'll be happening subtly in the background suddenly comes hurtling to the forefront. but no spoilers. but def dadvid. ;3c
> 
> anyways, sorry for the late update! and sorry for responding to so many of you guys' comments so...so late. its been nearly a month for some of them. but i finally finished today!!! and i'm gonna try to be more on top of them now. and be more on top of my update schedule too. hooo boy. 
> 
> so...my birthday is on sunday (oct 1). ya boy here is turning 18. to celebrate, i was thinking either posting a new one-shot fic or updating this earlier to celebrate. either way keep an eye out ;3c
> 
> anyways, anyways....thank you all so much for you encouragement and kind words!!! you guys are honestly amazing and tbh this fic probably wouldn't be as good as i'm trying to make it without you guys. i love you all, and thanks. <33


	9. Chapter 9

David had the most annoying alarm clock in the world.

It was one of those pre-set ones on his phone, the type that would go off and not shut up until its tired and pissed-off owner unlocked it. If it was to be described, it basically sounded like a Minion screaming “Wake up, wake up, wAKE UP, WAKE UP!” with a tornado siren blaring in the background. Even David hated it, but it was efficient. And that’s what mattered.

He hoped Max would see it that way as well, but judging by his death glare it was pretty obvious he didn't.

“Shut. That. Fucking. Thing. _Off_ ,” he hissed through gritted teeth.

David gave him a sheepish smile and fumbled with his phone for a second. “Hey, at least it woke us up, right?”

Max huffed, looking both groggy yet awake at the same time. He was still up on the couch, staring down at David on the floor. “Yeah, it sure did,” he said, venom dripping from every word, “ _but we don’t need to be awake._ ”

“Actually -” David finally stopped his alarm and checked the time. “I do. I have to go to school.”

He stood up and picked up the blankets he’d been using to sleep on the floor with, then ran a hand through his hair to judge whether or not he needed a shower. Max stared at him all the while, confused expression on his face.

“You’re an adult,” he said.

“Well, yeah.” David turned back around to face Max. “I’m a teacher.”

“You’re a _what_?” Max gagged at the thought. “Oh, god, don’t tell me you teach-”

“I teach dendrology and environmental studies at the local community college,” David said quickly. “You don’t have to worry about me being your teacher if you enroll in school here.”

Max suddenly crossed his arms and huffed again. “Why the fuck would I do that? I’m not even staying that long here anyways….”

“Sure, Jan,” David muttered under his breath. He rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be sarcastic for a moment. Within seconds, he forced his face back into a cheerful expression. “Anyways, will you be okay alone here? I don’t think you’d want to come to work with me….”

“If you’re afraid that I’m gonna burn the place down then I gotta say that’s a valid concern,” Max said, shrugging. “But if you’re afraid to leave me by myself just because I’ll be alone then you’re even more of a asinine buffoon than I thought. I’m almost eleven, I’m not a child.”

“‘Asinine buffoon’ -- where do you even get stuff like that?”

“I have a word of the day calendar on my phone.”

“You have a phone too?”

“Well, used to. And it wasn’t technically mine but that’s not the point.” Max pushed the blanket off his lap and sat up a bit more on the couch. “I’ll be fine here alone. You just go and have fun teaching some entitled millennials about leaves and dirt or whatever.”

“I _am_ a millennial.”

“Then why do you act like an oppressive Baby Boomer?”

“What is it with you kids and your generation bias these day?”

Max rolled his eyes. “Don’t answer a question with another question if you’re trying to win an argument, David.” He stretched his back and hopped off the couch. “Anyways, shouldn’t you be getting going? Don’t want you to be late on a Monday, after all.”

David hesitated for a moment more. “Are you sure you’ll be okay home alone?”

“I promise, David.” Max gave him a sarcastic Camp Campbell salute. “Scouts honor, or whatever.”

 

* * *

 

The day went well. In fact, the week went well. David and Max fell somewhat into a routine; David went to work, Max stayed home and did chores (completely by his own choice and apparently because David’s apartment was “filthy”), David would come home, and then they’d camp out in the living room with dinner and watch cartoons or movies until they fell asleep. It was an interesting set, especially to David who had lived alone for the past few years. It was different, but it wasn’t bad.

Despite Max’s claims, he began to look into schools in the area for him -- since the east-coast school year would be starting soon -- and he even braved a call to Sam to get some information he would need to register Max. Of course, he had gotten no answer but he did receive an email a few days later from someone with the address of “SamWUSS_GAYmgee” that contained all the info he’d been asking about.

Life, in short, was going good.

That was, until Max ran out of chores to do.

“Daaaaaaaavid,” he groaned one morning as he sat the kitchen table. “Take off from work today.”

David, who was in the middle of trying not to burn some pancakes, only looked up at him for the briefest of moment. “Wish I could, kiddo! But I can’t, I’m sorry.”

Max huffed. “But I’ve done everything this week already! I can’t just vacuum for the fifth time if the carpet’s not even dirty. The only thing to do is the dishes and that’ll be done in, like, fifteen minutes.”

“Max -- oh, darn it -- you can just relax today if you want,” David said, sighing slighting as he tried to get his spatula under the mis-flipped pancake he had been working on. “I sincerely appreciate it that you help so much around here, but really you don’t have to do any chores.”

Max frowned and looked down at the table. “But I gotta.”

“Max-”

“I mean, what else am I gonna do? Watch TV? I can’t focus on a show long enough to even make through a _Steven Universe_ episode unless someone’s there watching it with me.”

David finally looked up from his pancake, which was definitely burning now. “You want me to skip work just to watch Steven Universe with you?”

“Well, no I was just using an example. But I do want you to skip work so I won’t be fucking booooooooored today.”

“Hm.” David turned off the heat on the stovetop and immediately went over to the garbage can to the charred disgrace of a pancake into the trash. “I mean, you could always come to work with me.”

“Your entitled millennials wouldn’t mind?”

“Hey, not all of them are entitled….except one kid named Jared Klienman, but that’s besides the matter.” David shrugged. “And, I’m fine with it. We just can’t do it everyday and we’ll be good.”

Max considered it for a moment, then frowned. “Nah. Hard pass on that one. Like, there’s seriously no way in _hell_ I’d ever want to come to work with you….”

 

* * *

 

Fifteen minutes later, David and Max were heading out of the apartment and starting the trek to David’s college. It wasn’t too far and David insisted they walk instead of drive “for exercise” and Max, who hadn’t said a word since he begrudgingly changed his mind about coming, hadn’t complained.

The two made a pretty ridiculous pair. David’s ‘professor’ suit wasn’t matching -- with the bottoms being black and the top being a tweed brown -- and his shirt was navy blue and untucked. He was also pretty sure his shoes didn’t match but that seemed a bit impossible considering he only own one pair of work shoes. The only thing neat about his appearance was his hair and clean-shaven face.

Max on the other hand, was the complete opposite. His hair, which was typically curly and unruly in an endearing way, was sticking up in the back awkwardly. His face also looked a bit greasy, now that they were in the sun, as if he hadn’t thought to wash it. His jeans were baggy and he was swimming in another one of David’s oversized sweatshirts -- a dark green one this time. He didn’t seem to be wearing a shirt underneath it, either.

They walked in silence for a bit, until Max suddenly broke the silence and asked a question that had apparently been bugging him for a while about David assumed turning his phone off while he slept. David had been confused by the question until he remembered the off-handed lie he had once told Max so he would stop calling him at 3 AM. And, thus, David started creating another lie to cover-up his original one. His story was bullshit, and he was pretty sure Max knew he was making it all up, but he continued carrying it on until they reached their first major crosswalk at a busy intersection. David held out his hand for Max to hold.

Max looked at him like he was crazy. “What the fuck, man?”

“C’mon, I know you’re almost eleven but I would prefer it you just held onto me while we cross this street. There’s a lot of cars and-”

“I’ve crossed the street by myself before, David.”

“I _know_ , it’s just that cars go by here really quickly and -- HEY!”

Before he noticed, Max darted out into the road without him. David watched in horror as a car that was turning from behind them screeched to a stop just in time before it rammed straight into Max, who hadn’t been looking but was thankfully now safe on the other side of the crosswalk.

“Oh my god,” David breathed out. He wasn’t Catholic, or religious at all really, but in that moment he felt like crossing himself.

He then turned to the driver, expect them to start screaming at him about how Max nearly caused an accident but saw instead a woman in her mid-thirties grimacing at him sympathetically. She nodded to the backseat of her car, where David could see two kids about Max’s age pulling on each other’s hair and arguing with each other. David grimaced back and mouthed the word, ‘Sorry!’ and waved her on. She waved back and finally finished making her turn.

David glanced across the street. Max was still on the other side, waiting for him with his head down.

“Max!” David called, rushing across the street after making sure his way was clear. “Max,” he said again as he slid to a stop in front of him. He took the kid by his shoulder. “What the _heck_ were you thinking?!”

Max seemed a bit shaky as well, the realization that he’d almost been hit dawning on him. “Well,” he said, an involuntary nervous smile spreading across his face. “At least I now believe you on this being a dangerous intersection.”

“Oh my gosh,” David groaned. He squeezed Max’s shoulder. “Don’t do that, ever again. Please. That was so scary! You could’ve been hurt! Are you okay?”

Max sighed. “Yeah….”

David took a few more moments to compose himself, before finally releasing Max’s shoulders. “Well,” he finally said. “That made me sufficiently late to class. I hope my students don’t end up leaving on me.”

He was joking.

Max rolled his eyes. “If they all leave, does that mean you have to stay to still get paid? Or do you get paid no matter what?”

“That’s...not something you need to be concerned about.”

“C’mon, I’m just curious, David! I wanna know if it’s worth your while to show everyday or if you could just stay home every other week and still get paid! Because, if so, I think I just found my future calling.”

David laughed. “I’ll tell you about it some other time, then.”

Max huffed but then started on some rant about how hard it was to find a job nowadays and how, by extension, it would be even harder for his generation to find a job in the future as a result. He quoted some Buzzfeed articles and long Tumblr posts he’d apparently found on the issue and started cursing out the name of Baby Boomers as he went on.

While Max kept babbling on, David led him to his school and then to the science building. When they finally reached his classroom, David paused them outside of it for a moment, straightening his lopsided tie nervously and seemingly mentally preparing himself for whatever lay on the other side of the door.

Max stared up at him. “So, uh,” he started, “what do I do the whole time?”

David shrugged and made a face to match it. “No clue. Whatever you want, I guess. Just don’t cause any trouble.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Whatever. You know, it kinda fits that you’re a teacher. It means you’re The Man. The oppressive, capitalistic Man. No wonder I want to rebel against you.”

David shook his head but smiled, amused. “Whatever you say, Max.” He opened the door. “Now-”

David didn’t get to finish his thought, on account of how loud his class was being. People were chatting, yelling, snapchatting, throwing papers, making out, and generally just acting more rowdy than all of the ten year olds at Camp Campbell together ever did. David sighed deeply, cast one last look at Max, and then walked in the room.

“Goooooood morning, class!” he started, in what Max would’ve described as his ‘camp counselor voice’. “Sorry I’m late by a minute or two, but I brought a friend with me today.”

The class ignored him. David sighed and went over to the board to write something down. He glanced back at Max, who was still standing in the doorway and then beckoned to him with a nod to come inside. Unimpressed with the class and making that obvious on his face, he disdainfully walked in and then hopped up on David’s desk, sitting on top of it.

There was a moment more of the noise, then the room went silence. Max looked up at the students and David turned around. Everyone had their eyes on them.

Suddenly, a guy wearing an old T-shirt that said “The Conner Project” on it stood up. “Oh my god, professor!” he yelled. “I didn’t know you were a dad!”

A girl with a pink hijab on then pointed. “No, Jared, that’s probably his nephew!”

“He’s a U.I.L.F, remember?” an androgynous student with a buzz-cut exclaimed.

“Nephew!”

“Oh my god!”

“Our professor is such a good uncle.”

“Based on what?”

“That kid is so cute!”

“I wanna pinch his cheeks.”

“How are they related if they look nothing alike?”

“Professor, what’s his name?”

And suddenly the room broke out into chaos again.

Max looked back at David. “Are they always this fucking weird?”

David sighed. “They sure are.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wazzup my krispy kremes
> 
> ill answer older comments soon
> 
> sorry this is short and that not much happened and sorry for the late update/unplanned hiatus. life kicked my ass, i even ended up in the hospital at one point, but here i am now. writing camp camp fanfiction. living it up. whoooo boy.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yknow  
> i was gonna give up this fic, like give up writing it completely,   
> so i could write a heavily self-indulgent, and vaguely self-insert, lord of the rings gaybar au that i would show absolutely no one  
> but did i?  
> no.   
> give up on your dreams, kids

The class went rather well despite how the distraction of Max ate up the first ten minutes of class. David was able to drill into his students’ heads the different ways to identify certain deciduous trees (knowledge they would need to know for their next test!) and remind them all of the reading packet they needed to finish by the end of the week. All was going smoothly, until he mentioned the upcoming camping trip he liked to hold every year. 

And, then,  _ specifically then _ , did the class break out into chaos again. 

“Do we have to bring our own tents?”

“Do we need permission slips?”

At least he had gotten some notes in, David thought as the questions came flying at him. 

“Can I bring a friend?”

“Do we have to pee in the woods?”

“What are the rules on purpling? Or, uh, blue-ing or red-ing? Or, uh... _ uh _ ?”

“Alright!” David called to the class. “Alright, enough! One at a time, kiddos! Raise your hands, for Pete’s sake.” He huffed and the class quieted down a bit, though there was still a general underlying murmur throughout the group -- basically the quietest he was going to get them. He eyed the classroom and pointed at the first hand he saw fly up. “Okie-dokie, Jamie first.”

Jamie was typically one of the more quiet students in class, always seeming more lost in her own head, so David was a bit surprised she was actually asking a question. “Yes, hi,” she said. “My question is, basically, when exactly is the camping trip?”

David felt himself deflate a little. “We’ve been...talking about it for the past week. It’s next weekend.”

Jamie blinked once and revealed no emotion on her face. “Oh, okay.”

David should’ve expected a reaction like this out of her -- Jamie was one of the students in which he wasn’t exactly sure why she took his class, though she didn’t do terribly in it. At least now he knew why she didn’t do so great -- paying attention didn’t seem to be her strong suit. 

David suppressed a sigh and looked out at the sea of tired and millennial faces. “Alright...uh, Nadira, what’s your question?”

“Can I bring a camp stove?” she asked, leaning forward with her expression deadly serious. “Or are we, like, super roughing it? ‘Cause if we are, I know some survival tips from the time my family camped out for twelve nights in the woods with nothing but some pocket knives and-”

David blinked, a bit surprised because Nadira was a stereotypical girly-girl, with her outfits always matching and her hijab always adorned with different beaded or jeweled accessories. Then again, he probably shouldn’t have been so quick to judge -- especially since Nadira was one of his best students, and genuinely seemed passionate about nature. 

He smiled and interrupted her tangent in a way he hoped seemed polite. “Ah, well -- while I would love to hear the full story behind that camping trip, I’m afraid we’ll be a bit more lax with our little outing! You can bring whatever you need on this trip, including any luxury items.”

Nadira nodded but then huffed in disappointment when she thought David had looked away. He could’ve sworn she muttered the word “boring.”

He looked out at his class again, seeing three more hands raised. He pointed to the sitting closest to his desk. “Tip?”

“‘Kay, so,” the student, Tip, started, “I’m, like, legit serious about the purpling, or any other genders’ variations. What are the rules on it?”

David bit his lip. He knew what purpling was. His students knew what purpling was. He knew his students knew what purpling was. They probably knew he knew what it was too. 

“Well,” he said, clearing his throat. His eyes slid over to Max, who was sitting on the floor in the corner, doodling on a notepad with a pen, eyes downward but a slight smirk on his face. David turned back to the student. “We’re all adults, here, right? We can just call it by it’s more colloquial and gender-neutral term;  _ canoodling _ .”

Several people sputtered and the room broke out into laughter. Except Tip, who was staring at David intensely. 

“Okay,” they repeated, “so...what about canoodling then? Is that allowed? Nothing graphic, of course.”

David felt himself turn red and he sighed. “Ah...basically, if I don’t see it, it didn’t happen. Okay?”

The student’s eyes widened at that. “Oh...yeah. Yeah, I guess that answered my question. Thanks, professor.” They smiled to further express their thanks but their eyes were far-away, looking like they were plotting something. “That was enlightening.”

Tip was...one of David’s more interesting students, to say in the least. They did fine in class, but were one of the ones that usually liked to question things aloud and argue with what the textbook said about controversial issues. They were an oddball at times, but honestly they would probably go far in life. But they were also the student that called him an U.I.L.F. a few weeks back.

And at the moment they were confusing the heck out of David.

“Yeah...no problem.” David let his eyes travel around the room for a moment, spying only two hands up. One was a quiet student -- quieter than Jamie -- and the other was Jared.

On one hand, David really really didn’t want to answer Jared’s question, considering his and Jared’s track record with each other. On the other hand...he didn’t know the quiet student’s name. 

He hesitated for a moment, and then finally called out, “Jared?”

Jared smirked at him, but not in a smug or annoying way, but rather in a way that suggested that his casual face just always looked like  _ that _ . “So, professor,” he started, “I was sincerely wondering if we can bring, like, a plus-one on this trip? My boyf -- my friend -- is really into trees and nature and stuff but wasn’t able to take your class because he applied to this college late and basically had to -- uh, know what? long story, nevermind -- anyways, he couldn’t take your class but would love to sit in on one of your lectures, and uh? Yeah. Can we bring friends?”

Jared’s ramble hardly made any sense to David, but he tried his best to follow. He thought he got the general gist of it. “Uh…” he said. “I’m gonna have to say no? I’m technically not supposed to fraternize with any of you outside of school hours --” both Jared, and surprisingly Tip, deflated at this -- “so it’s technically a field trip. Only people in my classes are allowed to go.”

“Oh,” he heard Jared mutter. David looked up to see his eyes were downcast and his expression screwed up in an unhappy way. “Uh. Okay. Thanks anyways, professor.”

“No problem,” he answered, frowning a bit at Jared’s reaction “So, uh, any other questions?”

He scanned his class for more hands. The one from before was still up, and a new one. He felt kinda like a dick, but he called on the new hand first -- he at least knew her name. 

“Laurie?”

“Yeah, professor, I was wondering,” Laurie, the class-clown-that-was-too-nice-to-actually-be-a-class-clown, said, “have you ever actually been camping before? Not to doubt you or anything...but, like, I’ve never been camping before and I don’t want to get lost in the woods.”

“Oh, you’d be safe with me, baby,” Nadira muttered a bit too loudly. Evidently she had meant for that to be under her breath, but the entire class heard. She bit her lip upon this realization and stared dead ahead, internally screaming, while Laurie blushed and tried not to look at her. The rest of the class looked torn on whether or not to laugh or to pity the poor girls.

David basked in the awkward silence for a moment, then opened his mouth to speak. Someone beat him to the answer, however. 

“This dude?” Max suddenly piped up from his corner. He snorted. “Hell, nah! He ain’t never camped before in his life.”

All eyes turned off of Nadira and Laurie, and onto Max. The two of them seemed grateful, but also curious at the same time. Max smirked at the attention, but remained seated and focused on his drawing. 

“Oh, yeah,” he continued, sarcastically. “David? He’d die if he was left alone in the woods for an hour. The guy’s hopeless. He may know a lot of shi -- stuff about trees, but he can’t handle the real deal.”

Max looked up and made eye contact with David, daring him to say anything. David didn’t. He stared straight back at Max, smile amused and eyes rolling. His shook his head slightly, but fondly, and huffed a little. Max smirked again and went back to his drawing. David stared at him a moment more and turned back to his class. 

“Little liar,” he muttered, and then louder said, “My nephew’s just yanking your chains. I...took him camping a lot over the summer. And, evidently, he does not like camping, and I think he’s still bitter over that. Ignore him, please. I have been camping many times before, if that answers your question, Laurie.”

Laurie flushed when the attention was turned back to her. “Oh, yeah. Thanks. It does.”

“Excellent! And, finally, any more-” David spotted the student whose name he couldn’t remember. His was the only hand up. David then accidentally made eye-contact with him, and he then knew it was all over. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t see this student’s hand up. He had to call on him. This was the one for all the marbles. This had to be the most important question of the day, based upon how fate had stacked it against David in his effort to answer it. 

“Yes?” he finally said, nodding towards the student and simultaneously cheering himself on because he had avoided using the student’s name without seeming like an asshole. 

“Do we have to pee in the woods?” the student asked, eyes wide and terrified. 

David bit his lip and sucked in a deep breath. 

Whatever high powers dictated the universe -- God, multiple gods, the flying spaghetti monster, even Zeemuug and the Galactic Confederacy -- they sure were testing him today. 

 

* * *

 

 

David stayed behind and cleaned up the classroom a bit after his students had left. Max was still huddled up in his corner, putting the final touches on his notepad masterpiece. As David paraded around the room with the waste-bin and occasionally bent down to pick up a crumpled up piece of paper, the door to his room opened back up, and in walked Jared. 

David pretended not to notice him for a moment, still feeling a bit awkward over what had happened in class that day. However, doing so soon made him feel  _ mean _ , so he straightened up and suppressed a sigh. When he turned to face Jared, he seemed nervous. 

“Mr. Kleinman,” David greeted. “What can I do for you?”

Jared took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I, uh, was wondering something about the camping trip.”

The classroom was built in a roman auditorium style -- meaning the professor’s desk was on the floor and the center of attention, and the students’ desks were progressively going up in a staircase type fashion. Jared was in front of David’s desk, and David was standing in front of the first row of student desks -- making him one level higher than Jared, giving him the high ground. 

“And what was that?” David asked after a moment. 

“I...uh. I was wondering if I could….” Jared mumbled. David had never seen him so flustered and put out before. He sucked in a breath. “Uh, know what? Nevermind. Sorry, professor.”

Jared started to turn away. David watched him for a moment, lips pressed tight together, and then suddenly felt eyes on him. He looked over to Max, who had paused his drawing and was watching him with judgemental yet curious eyes. David glanced back at Jared. 

“Jared -- wait!” David stepped down from the raised floor and hurried over to his student. “What was it that you wanted to ask? If it’s embarrassing or anything, trust me when I say I’ve heard worse and-”

“I have a boyfriend,” Jared blurted out. 

David blinked once. “Uh. Alright?”

Jared let out a deep breath, and promptly cringed. “Sorry, that came out wrong.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine -- uh, is this boyfriend the ‘friend’ you wanted to bring along on the trip?” David asked. “I mean, the word was halfway out of your mouth before you decided to censor yourself.”

“Uh, yeah.” Jared cringed again. “He’s - he’s the friend I wanted to bring along. My boyfriend, I mean. His name is Evan, Evan Hansen, and he really wanted to take your class but didn’t have the grades to get in because of some stuff that happened during his senior year of high school. We were gonna take it together but --” Jared cut off his sentence and smiled bitterly in spite of himself. “Ah, you don’t need to know this, do you?”

“It’s fine,” David repeated, frowning slightly. 

“Anyways,” Jared started before David could say anything else. “It would mean the world to me and Evan if he was allowed on this trip. I also really, really don’t want to leave him alone for an entire weekend -- I mean, I  _ could  _ just hang back and not go, but then he’d feel guilty and that’d make  _ me  _ feel bad and then we’d  _ both  _ be feeling bad and -- and, shit, I’m rambling and I just cursed. Sorry.”

David scrutinized Jared for a moment. He’d never seen the kid like this before. Usually Jared was all laughs, quick with a joke, and quick with a heavy load of sarcasm. He wasn’t exactly one of the best students in the class, but he did his work well and obviously made an effort. He was also a leader, as was evident of his little friend Laurie following his lead, and typically radiated confidence. 

But now, when David looked at him, all he could see was a nervous and even scared-looking teenager, asking permission for something they weren’t sure they would attain. He was hunched over, fingers shoved deep into his pockets and obviously playing with lint, and not meeting David’s eyes. This wasn’t the Jared David knew. Or rather, this was  _ exactly  _ the Jared David knew -- now, just with more context for the persona he displayed. 

For the briefest of moments, David glanced over at Max. 

“I’ll think about it,” he said after a moment, looking back at Jared. “I mean -- I’ll ask some higher ups if it’s okay. It probably will be, too. Colleges are a lot more lax with their field trip rules. You guys don’t even need permission slips, technically, for starters. I just said no at first because I honestly didn’t know and it seemed like the easiest answer to give, so I’m sorry about that.”

Jared looked up at him, eyes suddenly hopeful and regaining a bit of their usual spark. “Wait, really? Evan can go?”

“Well...we’ll see. But probably yes. The more the merrier, right?”

Jared smiled wide. “Oh my god, thank you, professor! You really are the best, like Tip is always saying!”

David laughed a bit awkwardly at that. “Thanks. Anyways, you’d better go tell Evan the good news. I gotta get that one home.” 

He nodded towards Max, who threw up a peace sign at the acknowledgement. 

Jared nodded and looked as though he wanted to either excitedly hug David, or excitedly shake his hand. He did neither, but just bounced in place. “Will do! Oh my god!” He ran towards the door. “Thanks again, professor!”

“No problem,” David said, and he meant it. 

Jared saluted him, for some reason, and ran off. The door slammed behind him, but not with the negative connotation most door-slams have.  

David picked up his trash can from before and did a few more quick clean-ups -- just to make things easier on the poor, old janitor who honestly was never appreciated enough. When he was done, he grabbed all his stuff, did a once-more around the classroom with his eyes just in case he was missing anything, and then finally, finally went over to Max’s little corner. 

Max didn’t seem to notice him at first. He was still scribbling away at his notepad, on what was probably his third or fourth picture. He’d been doodling with one of those multi-colored pens, which changed ink color depending on what click-y part on the top was pressed down. 

David peered over his shoulder as he drew and saw what was undeniably Starlord from  _ Guardians of the Galaxy _ rendered in a ten year old’s artstyle. Something was different about Starlord, though -- he had black hair and his skin, while not colored in, was outlined in brown. His leather red leather jacket also seemed to be more of a hoodie. Next to Starlord was Yondu, Starlord’s space-pirate-adopted-father, except he had red hair and a neckerchief on and a vest instead of a space-pirate jacket and -- oh.

David smiled to himself as Max looked up and practically hissed at him. 

“The fuck are you doing!” he yelled, covering his drawing with his arms. “Don’t you know how creepy that is to just silently walk up on people and stared at them! Especially when they’re drawing! It’s not even finished yet, David, I swear to god -”

David ignored the rest of the insults Max was going to fling at him. “Okay, Max,” he said, probably interrupting him. “Whatever you say.” 

Max huffed and flipped the notepad back to the first page, which probably was left strategically blank for the exact purpose of hiding his art. He shoved the pen in his pocket. David was probably not going to receive neither of the office supplies he lent the kid back, and was 100% okay with that. 

“So, are we ready to leave, or what?” Max grumbled. He pushed himself up and stretched, eyeing the door. 

“We’re ready to leave.” David slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way over to the door, Max following behind. “So, what’d you think of my class? Was it as boring as I said it would be?”

Max snorted. “I mean, yeah. But I do gotta give credit where credit is due -- the fact that you referenced  _ Lord of the Rings _ and said “Luke, I am your father” in the same lesson was a risky but successful call, though a bit lame since both are outdated memes as a whole.” He shrugged and his lips twitched upwards for the briefest of seconds. “But if I was actually taking the class and not just sitting in the corner the entire time, I might have found it...interesting.”

“Ah!” David put a hand on his heart. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

Max rolled his eyes but then frowned. They had exited the building now, and were on their way home. “Was that...snark?” he said after a moment. “You just used snark?”

“Sarcasm is more the word I think you’re looking for,” David said, voice as cheerful and peppy as ever. “But, of course, I do not use sarcasm. I only speak in literal terms all the time, and only say things with kind intentions behind them.”

“Totally.” Max rolled his eyes again and chose not to comment further.

They walked along in silence for a few more minutes until they reached the intersection where Max almost fucking died earlier that day. Neither of them made a show of acknowledging it, however -- David didn’t request that Max take his hand, and Max didn’t rush out into the oncoming traffic. They simply waited for the light to change and walked across the street. 

Finally, David broke the silence and asked what Max wanted for lunch. The class had only lasted for a few hours, and David had another one later that evening that he was sure Max wouldn’t be interested in going to -- but that meant he had enough time to feed the kid and then take him home. They decided to eat out, at the cafe they had went to all those weeks ago when David sprang Max from the police station. They sold some pretty decent sandwiches there, along with hipster coffee. Given both David’s and Max’s eating habits, the place soon became a fast-favorite of their’s. 

On the way there, David received a text. It was from an unknown number, and all it said was “hey” so he ignored it for the time being. Besides, there were more pressing things at hand -- Max seemed to be seriously considering showing him his drawings. 

“You won’t laugh?” Max demanded, as they rounded a corner, eyes wide and ready to fly into a rage. “And you won’t make any unnecessary comments?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die,” David said, sincerely. 

Max rolled his eyes. “God, do you have to make everything so weird?”

David smiled, and felt his phone buzz again in his pocket. He ignored it. “Yes, yes I do.”

Max huffed and took the notepad out from under his arms, seriously considering it for a moment. He frowned. “...And you promise you won’t make any fun of it?”

“Of course I wouldn’t, Max.”

“But  _ why  _ do you want to see it, that’s my question.” Max hurriedly stuck the book back under his arm, as if hiding it away. “I mean, it’s just a few dumb drawings….”

“I want to see it because it’s  _ your  _ drawings, silly!” David exclaimed as they finally neared the cafe. His phone went off again. “If you don’t want to show me, that’s fine, but I’d still love to see it.”

Max huffed, and then rushed ahead to open the door to the cafe instead of answering David. The smell of coffee brewing and pastries baking filled the air, and a little bell on top of the door jingled. Their usual barista, the one who had drawn on their cup a few weeks back, was there and was currently taking an order. There was a short line, and Max hopped on the end of it. 

David nudged him as he joined him. “I mean it, too,” he mumbled.

Max sighed and looked at his shoes. “Hm...uh, maybe when we’re sitting down? I don’t want anyone else to see.”

“Of course, Max.” David smiled down at him, and then turned his eyes forward. His phone buzzed. Again. “In the meantime, let’s figure out what you want to eat.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Oh, c’mon, you don’t know by now? I always get-”

David felt himself open his mouth to finish Max’s sentence, knowing exactly what he was going to order. Instead, his phone went off again. And again. And again. It took David a moment to realize that his phone wasn’t just buzzing for a text, but that he was getting a call. He shut his mouth and pulled it out, looking down at the words “Unknown Number” on his screen. He smiled sheepishly at Max.

“Hold our spot in line, buddy?” he said, walking away before he could answer. “Thanks!”

“Wait-” Max started, the fear of every kid whose parent left them in line for the groceries being struck in his heart, but David was already out the door. 

David went over to the side of the building and  then hesitated before answering. The last time he had answered an unknown phone number, his life had quite literally change over night -- for better or for worse, he didn’t know. But then again, that “change” was currently standing in the cafe waiting for him to come back so they could have lunch and he could show off his drawings to David.

He slid the screen towards the “answer” option and held it up to his ear. 

“ _ Wassup, motherfuck _ ?” a familiar voice rang out. Club music was blaring in the background. “ _ How’ve you been _ ?”

David frowned. “Who is this?”

“ _ Aw, c’mon, Boy Scout, don’t you remember me _ ?” 

“I will once you say who you are.”

The guy on the other line chuckled a bit, even though nothing was particularly funny. “ _ I’ll give you a hint _ ,” he said, “ _ the last time I saw you, I punched you. I also owe you a racecar bed, unrelated to the punching. And, of course  _ -” here he paused “-- _ you did, technically, kidnap my younger brother. _ ”

David’s blood ran cold. 

Sam. 

“ _ Hey, now, don’t worry. Water under the bridge, right _ ?” Sam laughed again, and it almost reminded David of their first meeting -- how he wouldn’t stop smiling when he was nervous. “ _ I’m not here to bring up the past or the present, or to land you in jail or anything _ ,” he continued. 

David swallowed and tried to keep his voice level. “So, why are you calling?”

“ _ Well _ ,” Sam said, and David could practically hear the smirk in his voice. “ _ You’re never gonna believe this. You might not even agree _ .”

“You’ll never know until you ask,” David let slip, his encouraging camp-counselor ways failing him. And, well, of course, he kinda did want to know. 

There was a pause, and Sam sucked in a breath. David waited for whatever he was about to say. 

“ _ Actually _ ,” he said. “ _ I’m actually calling….to ask you out on a date _ .”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i highkey ship sam and david and i dont give a H*CK. also. my ocs. plus jared. aka david's students. i hope u enjoy them. 
> 
> anyways, sorry for the late update! the next one, will be, much sooner? hopefully? who knows? i ain't giving up on this fic yet tho, like i literally made it my new years resolution to finish it before summer rolls around. but also sorry? if??? idk????? i feel as though my writing style has changed tho that might just be me idk its nearly 1am and i just got off a nine hour shift idk idk idk but sorry if that like. changed the way this fic appears/seems/and tbh i am not making much sense and will prob delete this part of the A/N in the morning
> 
> also thanks for y'all for still kicking it with me and this fic after all this time, i love and appreciate everything single one of y'all. <333


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic: *holding a gun to my head*  
> me: *crying* pls....writing is so hard.........i work a 38 hour work week, volunteer on the resuce squad, and attend high school full time.....pls....  
> this fic: *cocks gun, shoots at my crotch but doesn't hit it*  
> me: PLS

David felt his face heat up. Blood rushed in his ears. Had hear that right? Was Sam seriously asking him out on a  _ date _ ? David stumbled to get his words out. “W-what?”

There was another paused and Sam repeated, “ _ I’m asking you out on a date _ .”

David swallowed, not believing his ears. “Oh.”

There was a long silence. 

Finally, Sam sighed. “ _ Well, Davey, are you going to answer me or not _ ?” He sighed and a bit of his usual snark creeped its way back into his voice, though David was too shocked to notice. “ _ Don’t leave a guy hanging. _ ”

David thought for a moment. And a moment was literally all it took. The answer was obviously no, of course. Why the heck would Sam even ask him that in the first place? It had to be a joke. Or...was it? He sounded so sincere….

“Ah, well,” David started, trying to think of the right thing to say. Sam was a dick and a fundamentally unpleasant person to be around, but that didn’t mean he deserved an unkind rejection. “I’m, uh, flattered, Sam. I really am. But I’m just not-”

David cut himself off when he heard Sam snickering. 

“Oh my god,” he huffed out. “You really were just pulling my leg, weren’t you?”

Sam burst out laughing. “ _ Uh, duh _ ,” he choked out. Club music was still playing loudly on the end of his line. “ _ I hardly know you, dude. Also, like, I did punch you the last time we met. Geez, have some standards. _ ”

David felt his face go red again, except this time in embarrassment. “I was going to turn you down, don’t lecture me on having standards!”

“ _ Awww, were you? Dang, that really hurts my feelings, Boy Scout. _ ” Sam fake sniffed. “ _ I thought we had something. _ ”

David pulled the phone away from his ear and inhaled deeply, scrubbing a hand down his face. He gave himself a moment more to collect himself, and then held the receiver back up to his face. “Just tell me why you’re calling,” he said with a suppressed sigh. 

“ _ Awww, c’mon, you gotta admit that was funny. Like, I honestly didn’t think you would fall for that at all but then- _ ”

“I didn’t fall for it, I knew it was a joke,” David tried to say scathingly, but frankly failed because that tone of voice didn’t match his personality. He then added in an afterthought, “And I’m serious, you’d better explain what you want in the next three seconds or I’m hanging up and blocking your number.”

“ _ Pssh, you’re no fun. _ ” There was a bit of a pout in Sam’s voice. “ _ But okay, whatever. I guess I’m calling because I actually do wanna meet up with you -- I mean, I kinda just let my brother go off and live with you, without doing a proper background check. How do I know you’re not some kind of freak? I don’t know what you want with Max. _ ”

David pressed his lips together in a tight line. That was...a very good point, especially if looking at it from Sam’s point of view. Then again, even David didn’t know exactly what he “wanted” with Max -- though he did know that it was nothing creepy or immoral. He just...wanted to see the kid happy, he guessed. 

“That’s fair,” David said simply. 

Sam breathed out a sigh of relief. “ _ Oh, thank god. I didn’t have to pull out the child support card to convince you. So, you’ll meet me up _ ?” The club music in the background of his call started to fade, as if he was moving away from it. “ _ When’s a good time for you? Also, do you like Italian _ ?”

“One question at a time,” David snapped, but since he was David he then added, in a much politer tone, “please?” He then sighed. “But, yeah, I’ll meet up with you.”

“ _ Great! But when? And the Italian thing, that’s very important. _ ” Sam’s babbling was somewhat reminiscent of Max’s, when he was telling a story about his day, and David had to suppress a smile. “ _ I mean _ ,” Sam continued, “ _ even if you don’t like Italian -- which is doubtful because everyone likes Italian -- I’m making you go to that lil bistro I saw a few blocks away from your apartment last time I was there. It looked fucking amazing. Anyways- _ ”

“Slow down, bucko,” David said, stopping him before he would unknowingly change subjects -- something Max did as well. “I’ll have to check my schedule first, before I can tell you when we can meet up, so can I call you back about that?” He paused for a moment, and before Sam could answer, said; “and yes, I like Italian.”

Sam made a sound akin to a muted victory screech, then cleared his throat. “ _ Uh, yeah _ ,” he said, trying a bit too hard to sound casual, “ _ that’s fine if you call me back about that. But, preferably, can you do that in the next forty-eighter hours? I’m on a tight schedule and I need to know when I can work-in a day where I can head up to your area _ .”

“Of course,” David said. He then frowned. “Wait, what do you do for a living?”

“ _ Oh, my job has nothing to do with why I have a tight schedule _ ,” Sam explained, snorting a bit. “ _ But I’m a truck driver by trade. Okay, so, I guess that job does have a tight schedule. But I’m on leave right now due to some knee complications I’ve been having and --  oh, nevermind. That’s not the point _ .” He huffed and David heard something click close to Sam’s end of the receiver. “ _ But do you think you can do that? Call me back soon? _ ”

Sam’s voice was tight on that last bit, as if he wasn’t breathing out when he spoke. He was inhaling a cigarette. 

“Yeah, I’ll call you later today, even.” David paused for a second. “I have a question for you now.”

“ _ Shoot, kid _ ,” Sam said, and David imagined him blowing out smoke. 

“What did you mean by ‘child support’?”

“ _ Ah _ ,” Sam said, obviously smirking on the other end at some joke David was apparently was missing. He paused before responding, probably taking another drag of his cigarette. “ _ I never really got to pay you for taking care of Max. The first time I tried to give you money, you obviously had no clue what it was for. And then the next time I saw you...well, you found out what a mean right hook I have. I found out you’re not as much as a pussy as you seem. _ ” He gave a small laugh at that, but sobered up quick. “ _ I really haven’t gotten a chance to properly compensate you _ .”

David opened his mouth to protest. 

“ _ Shut up _ ,” Sam continued, as if on cue. “ _ Let me finish. I know you don’t want my damn dirty money. I also know you’re not doing anything weird with my brother. Call it a hunch, but I...I trust you with him. I know you genuinely care about the little dude, and that’s why you don’t want to be paid _ .”

David shut his mouth. 

“ _ I’m glad my brother has someone life you in his life, though I sincerely wished you two got to know each other under much different circumstances. And I’m not talking about just meeting at camp. _ ” Sam paused again for a drag and then sighed. “ _ This is...just my way of helping you guys out. Making me feel like I’m doing my part in making sure my s -- my brother is growing up right. Let me give you some money. _ ”

They both were silent for a moment, each respectively contemplating all that had been set upon the metaphorical table. Finally, David opened his mouth back up again, and a smile twinged at his lips as he spoke. 

“But ‘child support’?” he said. 

The tension broke immediately. Sam snorted, “ _ Oh yeah, didn’t you know? We’re married and evidently you got custody of our kid. I’m late on sending you your monthly check. _ ”

“Did we adopt him or is he somehow biological?” David joked, rolling his eyes and playing along.

“ _ Oh, he’s biological of course. But he’s mine from a previous relationship. I only got custody of him because my partner died, _ ” Sam continued, as if revving up for a story. Now this was different from the way Max told stories -- he usually stumbled over them and jumped around too much. Sam did that too, as David found out -- except, apparently, when was a lying. “ _ My parents disapproved of that relationship, however, _ ” Sam continued. “ _ Probably because I got her pregnant when we were both 17. They also disapprove of our current one. _ ”

“Why, because it’s gay?” 

“ _ Nah, not really. They could care less about that. They want me to go back to college and marry a nice church girl, so really I could be in a relationship with anyone at this point and they would be disappointed. _ ” 

“So, how did I get custody of Max?” David questioned, still a little shocked at Sam’s improvisation skills. 

“ _ Weren’t you listening? You adopted him, legally. We were married for six years, dude _ .”

“So when I was eighteen.”

“ _ And when I was twenty _ .”

“Alright,” David said, humoring him. “But why did I get custody? No judge would take a kid away from their rightful father.”

“ _ Au contraire _ ,” Sam said, “ _ you are the rightful father. Well, at least one of them. You legally have been his father for most of his life, since you adopted him. In the courts, that makes him just as much as your son as he is mine. They rules you to take him because I’m a deadbeat that smokes too much pot, but they can’t convict me of anything because I live in Colorado and there’s no proof that I’ve taken my stash out of state. _ ”

“Must’ve been a compelling case, then,” David said with a snort. “With all those twists and technicalities. And you pay me child support? I don’t remember that being in the custody agreement.”

Sam huffed. “ _ We decided to do it ourselves, that there was no need to get the court involved. Don’t you remember that, sweet cheeks? Though I do think we are in need of a revision. Shall we talk about it over dinner, like we originally planned _ ?”

David rolled his eyes, and then huffed to himself because he was somewhat impressed at how subtly and smoothly Sam brought their conversation back to reality. “Is that your way of telling me we’ll discuss this later?”

“ _ Heh _ ,” Sam chuckled. David then heard him take an extra-long drag, like it was the last one on his cigarette. He exhaled loudly. “ _ Kinda. Let’s just say whatever I’ve just been smoking has started to kick in, and I have no clue what type of bullshit I’ll start spouting out once it really kicks in _ .  _ Half of that conversation we just had was a result of me getting high. _ ”

Oh. So apparently he hadn’t been smoking a cigarette.

“ _ I sincerely become more creative when I get high, _ ” Sam continued, starting to babble. Now he was beginning to sound more reminiscent of Max again -- topics jumping all over the place and the words practically falling out of his mouth. “ _ But I never remember what I think up afterwards. Maybe I should record myself. I could write a novel that way, couldn’t I? Or a podcast….yeah, the ‘Stoner _ ’ _ s Stories’. I should get high once a week and just record myself talking. That’ll be a hit. _ ”

“Sure,” David said placating. He thought about hanging up, but not out of spite -- rather out of self-preservation in regards to time. He did need to get back to Max after all, who was still waiting for him in line….

“ _ Anyways _ ,” Sam continued. “ _ Text me when you’re free, we can meet up then. Promise you’ll hear me out the entire time. Drive safe. Uh. What are we talking about again? _ ”

Before David could answer, there was a yell on the other line -- a young woman’s voice calling Sam’s name. 

“ _ Oh, shit _ ,” he cursed. “ _ Nevermind. See ya, Daniel _ !”

David started to correct him, but snapped his mouth shut when he realized the other line had promptly gone dead. 

_ Well _ , he thought to himself, lowering his phone.  _ I guess I am free next Thursday. _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha....psych.....  
> ok tbh i used to ship sam and david as a joke (like back in the first chapter sam arrived) but once i started writing sam's character more i like??? rlly don't ship them. i still wanted them to go on a "date" bc i love writing interactions between them but the date is more like....a business meeting. where they discuss max. idk. 
> 
> anyways, i have responded to absolutely no comments on the last chapter and i am sincerely sorry for that!!! i'll try to do that all tonight. also sorry for the late update!!! the explanation as to why it takes me so long to get out chapters is in the first author note's about the chapter. anyways i now have to go to work! see ya, kiddos!


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